Corticosteroids in the Treatment of Tuberculous Pleurisy

Inclusion Criteria: * Signed written informed consent; * Presented with clinical features suggesting pleural tuberculosis; * Had not previously received treatment or prophylaxis for tuberculosis; * Had not recently received treatment with glucocorticoids; * Were not pregnant or breast-feeding. Exclusion Criteria: * Failed to complete the screening procedures; * Were seropositive for HIV * Tuberculous meningitis; * Had risk factors for serious steroid-related adverse events (a history of diabetes or positive urine glucose, a history or clinical finding of hypertension, or a history of peptic ulcer disease or mental illness); * Standard doses of antituberculosis drugs could not be used (as in participants with concurrent liver disease) * Psychiatric illness; * Alcoholism.