Blood In Cough, Under Tuberculosis Treatment, Symptoms Were Fever, Weight Loss & Weakness, Taking Rifa, Ethide, Cyra, Tozar, Inj Streptomycin. Normal In TB?

Posted on Mon, 18 Jun 2012

Question: Hi, I am from India. My father (aged 60 years) is suffering from tuberculosis.He is under TB treatment for almost 2 months. His early symptoms were fever (periodically), severe weight loss and weakness. Now he is getting the following medicines
Rifa i 6 forte (1 tab daily)
PZA (750 mg) 2 tab daily
Ethide 250mg TDS
Cycloserine 250 mg (twice a day)
Cyra-D 1 cap daily
Multivit FM 1 tab daily
Alevo 500 mg 1 tab daily
Tozar 50 mg 2 tab daily
Asomax 1.25mg 1 tab daily
Arden 500mg 1 tab twice a day
Stamlo 2.5 mg 1tab daily
A to Z 1 tab daily
Injection Streptomycin 0.75g daily

My father is still weak. Earlier his sputum culture showed improvement from Positive Acid fast Bacilli to Nil. How ever, recently he is again showing productive cough (there was blood three times). Doctor is treating him as MDR TB. We are sending his sputum for culture once again. Is this natural in TB treatment?

Answered by Dr. Gyanshankar Mishra (1 hour later)

Hi,

Thanks for posting your query.

After having gone through the history, I would like to know the following additional details:

1. Had your father suffered from Tuberculosis previously?

2. What was the x-ray report of your father, if done, at the start of treatment?

3. Was a repeat chest x-ray done recently? If yes, then was there any radiological improvement as per the report?

4. Is your father currently on any anti-diabetic drug? Currently, were both fasting and post meal blood sugar normal? Also, was a glycated hemoglobin test done? Was urine tested for sugars?

5. Currently what is your father's body weight?

6. Was a sputum culture and drug sensitivity test ordered before treating your father as "MDR TB" (Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis)? If yes, then what were the results?

7. Does your father currently have complaints of blood in sputum? If yes, was any medicine prescribed for the same?

8. Over the period of 2 months did you father feel symptomatically better? Was there any weight gain in these 2 months?

Please do let me know these details so that I can advise accordingly.

Regards,

Dr. Gyanshankar Mishra
MBBS, MD, DNB

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E