The significance of chemotherapy for relapses from respiratory tuberculosis.

Relapses were analysed among 1,000 patients with arrested pulmonary tuberculosis who lived in the suburban area of Copenhagen. They have been carefully followed through a period of up till 15 years. Relapses did not occur if the patients had had a full course of modern chemotherapy. Therefore, it is recommended that routine follow-up of these patients be abolished. But relapses were very frequent among patients who had received incomplete chemotherapy or no chemotherapy at all. Attempts have been made to identify the groups particularly prone to a relapse. Age, and the time interval since the previous disease were of importance. Otherwise, neither the character of the disease, the extent of X-ray lesions, the frequency of cavities, nor the conditions at time of cure seemed of significance. Therefore close attention should be paid to all previous tuberculosis patients who have not undergone adequate modern drug treatment and, in selected cases, to consider preventive chemotherapy.