N-acetyltransferase 2 polymorphisms and risk of anti-tuberculosis drug-induced hepatotoxicity in Caucasians.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse slow-acetylation N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) polymorphisms for their association with the risk of anti-tuberculosis drug-induced hepatotoxicity (ATDH).

DESIGN: A case-control study including Caucasian patients with tuberculosis (TB) treated with isoniazid, rifampicin and pyrazinamide. NAT2 genotype results were compared between ATDH cases and controls and with a healthy Spanish control population of Caucasian origin.

RESULTS: Fifty cases and 67 controls were included in the study. Slow, intermediate and rapid NAT2 genotypes were found in respectively 72%, 18% and 10% of cases compared with 65.7%, 25.4% and 9% of controls (P> 0.05). On comparing NAT2 genotypes among cases with those among healthy controls (n = 1312), we found more slow NAT2 genotypes and fewer intermediate genotypes among cases (respectively 72% and 18% in cases vs. 54.8% and 38.1% in controls; OR 2.07, 95%CI 1.12-2.79, P = 0.016 and OR 0.37, 95%CI 0.18-0.75, P = 0.003).

CONCLUSIONS: We could not demonstrate an increased risk of ATDH related to the presence of slow NAT2 polymorphisms among this Caucasian TB cohort. However, we found a significantly greater frequency of slow and a significantly lower frequency of intermediate NAT2 genotypes among the ATDH cases compared with the healthy control population.