[A DRG/PPS simulation in the medical care of tuberculosis].

Purpose: To study the expected usefulness of the introduction of the DRG-PPS (Diagnosis-Related Group/Prospective Payment System, in which an insurer pays a fixed medical fee per hospitalization) into the current medical care of tuberculosis (TB) in Japan.

Method: The medical fees were reviewed for all TB inpatients at 19 hospitals under the National Hospital Organization who were discharged in either June 2007 or February 2008. The sum of the fixed fee by the DRG was assumed based on the bivariate regression analysis of each patient's hospital days and his or her total actual fees during the hospital stay under the current (fee for care) system, since it was difficult to directly calculate the daily fees for every patient that would be the basis of DRG-PPS.

[Clinical analysis of drug interaction between rifampicin and clarithromycin which are used for treating pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex infection].

Purpose: We reviewed the interaction between rifampicin (RFP) and clarithromycin (CAM) during treatment of pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex infection.

Subjects And Methods: The subjects were patients with pulmonary non-tuberculous acid-fast bacillus infection during the period from September 2004 to January 2006 who consented to this study. Drug blood concentrations were compared with the minimum inhibitory concentrations for M.

[Comparative study of bactec MGIT 960 AST and conventional proportion method using Ogawa medium for the drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to isoniazid].

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of drug susceptibility testing to isoniazid with BACTEC MGIT 960 (MGIT AST) comparing with the standard proportion method using Ogawa medium.

Method: A total of 1109 M. tuberculosis strains, which were selected from the collection of RYOKEN drug resistance survey in 2002, were selected and subjected to the susceptibility testing to isoniazid using MGIT AST and 1% Ogawa standard methods.

[The clinical study on efficacy of clarithromycin, levofloxacin, and streptomycin for pulmonary Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex infection].

Objective: The purpose of this study was to elucidate retrospectively the clinical effects of using RFP, EB, CAM, LVFX, and SM for pulmonary Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex infection.

Materials And Methods: During 9-year (1995-2003) period, 72 patients diagnosed according to the criteria of the Japanese Society for Tuberculosis Guidelines and treated for at least 6 months were available for this study.

Results: The age averaged 68 (range, 32-92) years.

[A case of pulmonary tuberculosis complicated with tuberculosis of bilateral cervical lymph nodes and exacerbated pericostal abscess].

A 23-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of cough and sputum in April 2001. A chest roentgenogram revealed infiltrative shadow with cavity formation in the bilateral lung fields. He was treated with sensitive antituberculous drugs.

[A case of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in young female complicated with acute respiratory distress syndrome and developing multiple giant cysts and pneumothorax in both lung].

A 20-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of cough and dyspnea in April 2001. On admission, laboratory data showed positive inflammatory signs. A chest roentogenogram revealed infiltrated shadow in the bilateral lung fields.

Evaluation of a commercially available serologic assay for antibodies against tuberculosis-associated glycolipid antigen.

A commercially available enzyme immunoassay developed to detect antibodies to a tuberculosis-associated glycolipid antigen was evaluated for serologic diagnosis of tuberculosis. This was a multicenter study comparing the assay with other methods in 78 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and in 54 controls with non-tuberculous lung diseases. Sensitivities were highest for sputum culture (91.