Factors Affecting Time to Sputum Culture Conversion and Treatment Outcome of 160 Patients with Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Tertiary Care Centres, Chennai

The aim of the present study was to investigate 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. This study was performed in tertiary care centres, chennai. MDR-TB patients were consecutively enrolled between December 2017 and March 2018. A prospective cohort study was carried out to identify the factors associated with initial culture conversion. Survival analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazards model to compute estimates for time to sputum culture conversion and rate ratios, respectively. Initial sputum culture conversion was reported in 139 out of 160 cases. 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, 34.0110.8 days). After multivariable analysis, smoking (HR = 0.44, 95 % CI 0.230.83), drinking (HR = 0.41, 95 % CI 0.210.81), ofloxacin resistance (HR = 0.43, 95 % CI 0.240.76) and sputum smear grade greater than 1 (HR = 0.51, 95 % CI 0.310.83) were less likely to have culture conversion. Treatment success was observed in 84 patients.