Isoniazid acetylator status of Black South African tuberculosis patients.

Black male tuberculosis patients (106) were phenotyped into 59% fast and 41% slow acetylators with isoniazid (NH) plasma half-lives. The antimode time dividing the two acetylator groups was longer than that previously reported for Whites. The therapeutic significance of INH acetylator phenotyping per se is questioned since it provides neither a measurement of the amount of INH absorption nor of its distribution within the body.