1 Department of Pediatrics, New York University College of Medicine, and the Chest Unit of the Children's Medical Service, Bellevue Hospital
Among 100 tuberculous children treated on a regimen including PAS, 3 developed a hypersensitivity reaction attributable to this drug. These three cases and a fourth from our files are presented, and the literature concerning such reactions in adults is reviewed.
Agranubocytosis was the prominent feature in one patient and jaundice in another. The various symptoms and sequential pattern of events that characterize the hypersensitivity reaction to PAS are described. Desensitization to the drug, which is a safe and nearly always successful procedure, was achieved in three patients. There is no specific treatment and the best insurance against irreversible or even fatal effects is the prompt discontinuation of the drug.
Submitted on November 11, 1957