Insignificant difference in culture conversion between bedaquiline-containing and bedaquiline-free all-oral short regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis

BackgroundMultidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients have been suffering long, ineffective, and toxic treatment until short-course injectable-free regimens emerged. However, the new WHO-recommended might be less feasible in real-world setting. Here, we evaluated two optimized all-oral China.MethodsFrom April 2019 to August 2020, conducted a prospective nonrandomized controlled trial consecutively included 103 MDR-TB diagnosed with pulmonary Shenzhen, China. A 4-5 drug regimen of 9-12 months was tailored strain's resistance patterns, patients' affordability, tolerance drugs. This an interim analysis, focusing on early period.Results53.4% (55/103) were prescribed linezolid, fluoroquinolone (FQ), clofazimine, cycloserine, pyrazinamide, followed by which clofazimine replaced bedaquiline (35/103, 34.0%). The culture conversion rate 83.1% 94.4% at four months, respectively, no significant difference between bedaquiline-free bedaquiline-containing cases FQ-susceptible FQ-resistant cases. Among 41 who completed treatment, 40 (97.6%) had favorable outcome relapse observed. Peripheral neuropathy arthralgia/myalgia most frequent AEs (56.3%, 58/103). 18 caused permanent discontinuation drugs, mostly due pyrazinamide linezolid.ConclusionOptimized showed satisfactory efficacy safety stage. Further research is needed confirm these results.