LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rifampin: Patients
built 615 days ago
Rifampin plays a fundamental role in the treatment of patients with active tuberculosis (TB). Although rifampin and isoniazid (INH) are by far the most effective antituberculosis agents, rifampin is the one medication that is crucial for ensuring success of short-course (6-month) chemotherapy.1 Patients with INH-resistant TB can respond well to 6-month treatment without INH (on a regimen of rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol), but patients with rifampin-resistant TB do not respond well to short-course chemotherapy without rifampin or another rifamycin (e.g., rifabutin).2
Source:
Rifampin-resistant meningococcal disease occurred in a child who had completed rifampin chemoprophylaxis for exposure to a sibling with meningococcemia. Susceptibility testing of 331 case isolates found only 1 other case of rifampin-resistant disease in Minnesota, USA, during 11 years of statewide surveillance. Point mutations in the RNA polymerase β subunit (rpoB) gene were found in isolates from each rifampin-resistant case-patient.
Source:
Rifampin has been shown to produce liver dysfunction. Fatalities associated with jaundice have occurred in patients with liver disease and in patients taking rifampin with other hepatotoxic agents. Patients with impaired liver function should be given rifampin only in cases of necessity and then with caution and under strict medical supervision. In these patients, careful monitoring of liver function, especially SGPT/ALT and SGOT/AST should be carried out prior to therapy and then every 2 to 4 weeks during therapy. If signs of hepatocellular damage occur, rifampin should be withdrawn.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Patients