Smear microscopy as surrogate for culture during follow up of pulmonary MDR-TB patients on DOTS Plus treatment

DOTS Plus site at LRS Institute, New Delhi, covering 1.8 million population. To ascertain if sputum smear could be used as a surrogate for culture during intensive phase of treatment of MDR-TB patients thereby enabling early shift from intensive phase to continuation phase, reducing the need for fre...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inIndian journal of tuberculosis Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 134 - 140
Main Authors Sarin, R, Singla, R, Visalakshi, P, Jaiswal, A, Puri, M M, Khalid, U K, Mathuria, K, Singla, N, Behera, D, Sharma, P P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published India 01.07.2010
Subjects
Humans
Predictive Value of Tests
Retrospective Studies
Sputum - cytology
Sputum - microbiology
Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - diagnosis
Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - drug therapy
Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - pathology
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - diagnosis
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - drug therapy
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary - pathology
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:DOTS Plus site at LRS Institute, New Delhi, covering 1.8 million population. To ascertain if sputum smear could be used as a surrogate for culture during intensive phase of treatment of MDR-TB patients thereby enabling early shift from intensive phase to continuation phase, reducing the need for frequent cultures and saving time and cost in their management. The study is a retrospective analysis of 138 MDR-TB patients on DOTS Plus treatment whose sputum samples were simultaneously subjected to smear microscopy and culture, monthly during Intensive Phase and once in two months during Continuation Phase. Sputum results in the treatment card were supplemented from laboratory register, if required, and analyzed. Predictive values, sensitivity and specificity of smear were compared with culture results. The Negative Predictive Value (NPV) of smear was high from the 3rd month onwards (above 91%), at four months 98% or more and approached 100% from eight months onwards. The specificity of smear test gradually increased during treatment and from five months onwards, it was above 90%. Considerable correlation was observed between sputum smear and culture during follow up of DOTS Plus treatment in the Intensive Phase. Accordingly, sputum smears can be recommended instead of culture.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0019-5707