AS WE BECAME aware of the remarkable activity demonstrated by isoniazid (isonicotinic acid hydrazide) against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro* as well as in vivo, both in experimental infections † and in human beings,‡ we decided to study the therapeutic activity of this drug in different clinical varieties of skin tuberculosis. This preliminary note refers to the observations made from April, 1952, to the end of January, 1953, at the Department of Dermatology of the General Hospital and at the Centro Dermatológico Pascua in Mexico City.
MATERIAL
In a nine-month period 16 patients were treated, 9 males and 7 females. Their ages varied between 8 and 84 years. Four were suffering from lupus vulgaris, four from tuberculosis, verrucosa cutis, four from tuberculosis colliquativa, two from papulonecrotic tuberculid, one from tuberculosis indurativa, and one from tuberculosis fungosa.
The duration of the disease varied from 18 months (tuberculosis colliquativa of the neck)