The Impact Factor Analysis of the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Oral 2nd Line Antituberculosis Agent, Cycloserine

In all treatments of tuberculosis, the second-line drugs are usually less effective but have more drug toxicity than the first-line ones. For the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients, who are resistant to the major first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs such as Rifampin and Isoniazid, the second-line agents, like Cycloserine in this research, are in frequent use. Taking patients' safety into consideration, therapeutic drug monitoring of Cycloserine has been listed as a routine examination during the tuberculosis treatment and established a suggested Cycloserine serum concentration of 20~35 mcg/mL.

While this suggested drug concentration was set up, it isn't suitable to all races in the world. The investigators plan to develop the therapeutic drug monitoring protocols and a suggested treating concentration fitting for Asian (Taiwanese). In addition, through this research, the investigators can also realize that factors causing different pharmacokinetics and the clinical outcomes in different Cycloserine level.