Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 6;18(1):114.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-018-3021-0.

Factors affecting time to sputum culture conversion and treatment outcome of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China

Qiao Liu  1 , Peng Lu  2 , Leonardo Martinez  3 , Haitao Yang  2   4 , Wei Lu  1 , Xiaoyan Ding  1 , Limei Zhu  5
Affiliations

Factors affecting time to sputum culture conversion and treatment outcome of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China

Qiao Liu et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Few prospective cohort studies, none in China, have investigated the relationship between treatment outcomes of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients and sputum culture conversion. Factors affecting the time of the culture conversion throughout the whole course of the treatment have rarely been investigated.

Methods: This study was performed in four cities in Jiangsu province, China. MDR-TB patients were consecutively enrolled between December 2011 and March 2014. Rates of sputum culture conversion were calculated and Cox proportional-hazards model was performed. Factors contributing to sputum culture conversion were investigated.

Results: In all, 139 MDR-TB patients with treatment outcomes were enrolled. Median time to culture conversion among those who converted was 91.5 days (interquartile range, 34.0-110.8 days). After multivariable analysis, smoking (HR = 0.44; 95% CI: 0.23-0.83), drinking (HR = 0.41; 95% CI: 0.21-0.81), ofloxacin resistance (HR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.24-0.76) and sputum smear grade > 1 (HR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.31-0.83) were less likely to have culture conversion.

Conclusions: MDR-TB patients who smoke, drink, have ofloxacin resistance, or a high smear grade are less likely to respond to treatment and should be meticulously followed up.

Keywords: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; Risk factors; Sputum culture conversion; Treatment outcome.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Jiangsu Province Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. The study was conducted in accordance with approved guidelines, and written informed consent was obtained from all eligible TB patients.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram of multidrug-resistant patients included in this study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. Global tuberculosis report 2015; http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/.
    1. Teixeira L, Perkins MD, Johnson JL, Keller R, Palaci M, do Valle Dettoni V, Canedo Rocha LM, Debanne S, Talbot E, Dietze R. Infection and disease among household contacts of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2001;5(4):321–328. - PubMed
    1. Nagaraja C, Shashibhushan BL, Asif M, Manjunath PH, Sagar C. Pattern of drug-resistance and treatment outcome in multidrug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis. Indian J Chest Dis Allied Sci. 2012;54(1):23–26. - PubMed
    1. Kurbatova EV, Gammino VM, Bayona J, Becerra MC, Danilovitz M, Falzon D, Gelmanova I, Keshavjee S, Leimane V, Mitnick CD. Predictors of sputum culture conversion among patients treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2012;16(10):1335–1343. doi: 10.5588/ijtld.11.0811. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kurbatova EV, Cegielski JP, Lienhardt C, Akksilp R, Bayona J, Becerra MC, Caoili J, Contreras C, Dalton T, Danilovits M. Sputum culture conversion as a prognostic marker for end-of-treatment outcome in patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: a secondary analysis of data from two observational cohort studies. Lancet Respir Med. 2015;3(3):201–209. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(15)00036-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources