Observational cohort study compares clinical outcomes between longer and shorter oral regimens for DR-TB, suggesting regimen impacts.
Key Points
At six months, the longer regimen yielded higher culture conversion rates at 79.8%, compared to 67.9% with the shorter regimen, marking an absolute difference of 11.9%.
Favorable treatment outcomes favored the longer regimen at 77.9% versus 69.2% with significance (p=0.010), indicating better effectiveness.
The study analyzed 906 MDR-TB patients, with 691 on the longer regimen and 215 on the shorter regimen, indicating robust comparative data.
Subgroup analyses revealed significant differences in pulmonary TB cases and highlighted the independent predictive value of pulmonary TB for treatment outcome.