TY - JOUR T1 - Role of 2-month sputum smears in predicting culture conversion in pulmonary tuberculosis JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 376 LP - 383 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00007410 VL - 37 IS - 2 AU - W-J. Su AU - J-Y. Feng AU - Y-C. Chiu AU - S-F. Huang AU - Y-C. Lee Y1 - 2011/02/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/37/2/376.abstract N2 - Sputum smears and culture conversion are frequently used to evaluate treatment response in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. Limited data are available on the evaluation of the correlation between under-treatment sputum smear results and culture conversion. This prospective study included sputum culture-proven pulmonary tuberculosis patients at six hospitals in Taiwan. At least two sets of sputum were collected at the completion of 8 weeks of TB treatment. The sensitivities and specificities of 2-month sputum smears were estimated based on culture conversion status. A total of 371 patients were enrolled for analysis. Factors associated with culture conversion included having a smear positive before treatment, presence of a cavity on radiography, rifampicin resistance and usage of the DOTS (directly observed therapy, short course) strategy. The sensitivities of 2-month sputum smears for culture conversion among all patients, initially smear-positive patients and initially smear-negative patients were 64.3, 71.4 and 38%, respectively, and the specificities were 81.6, 69.9 and 92.8%, respectively. In patients who were 2-month sputum smear-positive, the 2-month culture conversion rate was 80% if the patients were under DOTS and without cavitary lesions in radiograms. The predictive value of 2-month sputum smears in culture conversion was limited and highly influenced by clinical factors in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. ER -