Role of Acute Viral Hepatitis As a Confounding Factor in Antituberculosis Treatment Induced Hepatotoxicity (Report‪)‬

Isoniazid, rifampicin and pyrazinamide are essential first-line anituberculosis (anti-TB) drugs (1) which have hepatotoxic potential. Drug induced hepatotoxicity (DIH) is a commonly encountered adverse effect with anti-TB treatment that frequently results in interruption of treatment (2-4). The incidence of acute hepatitis in patients receiving short-course anti-TB treatment has varied widely and may depend on grade of trasnaminase elevation (1). However, what is perceived as anti-TB DIH may not be drug-induced all the time. Acute viral hepatitis is an important confounding illness which clinically, biochemically and histologically mimics DIH (5). As not much is known, we prospectively studied contributory role of acute viral hepatitis as a confounding factor in patients with anti-TB DIH.