ReviewCureus2026
Efficacy and Safety of High-Dose Rifampicin in the Management of Tuberculosis Meningitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Cureus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tuberculosis meningitis (TBM) represents the most severe type of tuberculosis (TB), and it is characterized by high mortality and neurological complications. Rifampicin is a major part of the standard treatment of TB; however, conventional doses often achieve subtherapeutic levels in the central nervous system. High-dose rifampicin has been suggested to enhance drug exposure and, possibly, improve the clinical outcomes. This study is a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness and safety of high-dose rifampicin compared with standard-dose rifampicin in the treatment of TBM. PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect were searched to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2010 and 2026. The included studies involved adult patients with TBM receiving either high-dose or standard-dose rifampicin. Pharmacokinetic results and risk ratios (RR) were estimated using a random-effects model with data pooling to estimate mean differences (MD) and confidence intervals (CI). Eight RCTs were included. The maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) (MD 23.89 µg/mL; 95% CI (8.56, 39.21)) and total drug exposure (AUC(0-24)) (MD 148.66 µg·h/mL; 95% CI (19.38, 277.94)) were both found to be significantly higher with high-dose rifampicin compared to standard-dose rifampicin. No significant difference, however, was found in six-month mortality (RR 1.00; 95% CI (0.80, 1.26)). The risk of neurological adverse events was higher with high-dose rifampicin (RR 1.34), with other adverse events such as hepatotoxicity and hypersensitivity reactions being comparable between groups. In general, high-dose rifampicin enhances pharmacokinetic exposure in TBM, but with no significant reduction in mortality and a higher risk of neurological adverse events. More large-scale randomized trials are required to identify optimal dosing practices and improve clinical outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.