ArticlePloS one2014
Time to culture positivity and sputum smear microscopy during tuberculosis therapy.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Randomized Trial of Metformin With Anti-Tuberculosis Drugs for Early Sputum Conversion in Adults With Pulmonary Tuberculosis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2022Trial
- Identification of Candidate mRNA and miRNA Molecules Associated with Tuberculosis Through Preliminary Analysis and Validation Using Clinical Samples.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Exploration of factors associated with turnaround time when evaluating non-tuberculous mycobacterium cultures.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Review of Genital Tuberculosis: Epidemiological Patterns, Causal Agents, Diagnostic Strategies, Symptomatology and Fertility Consequences.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2025Review
- Contamination rates in serially sampled sputum specimens obtained during tuberculosis treatment to capture culture conversion.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Gastrointestinal Tuberculosis: Clinical Presentations and Diagnostic Approaches.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- A novel method for detecting Lipoarabinomannan in urine with the promise of meeting the WHO target product profile for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.Tuberculosis (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2025Article
- Evolution of Laboratory Diagnosis of Tuberculosis.Clinics and practice · 2024Review
- The TB27 Transcriptomic Model for PredictingPathogens & immunity · 2024Article
- Early Microbiologic Markers of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Treatment Outcomes.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2023Article
- Quantification of multidrug-resistantThe international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease · 2022Article
- Recurrent Subclinical Tuberculosis Among Antiretroviral Therapy-Accessing Participants: Incidence, Clinical Course, and Outcomes.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2022Article
- Sex Differences in Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis Outcomes in Mali, West Africa.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2022Article
- Fast, simple and cheap: method modified from conventional cultivation for tuberculosis diagnosis allows seeding on Löwenstein-Jensen of any swab-embedded pulmonary samples decontaminated with sodium hydroxide.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2022Article
- The Cavity as a Lasting Abode for Tuberculous Bacilli: An Observational Study.SN comprehensive clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Clinically encountered growth phenotypes of tuberculosis-causing bacilli and theirFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- Viability assessment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in OMNIgene • SPUTUM reagent using the BACTEC MGIT 960 System and Xpert MTB/RIF assay.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2021Article
- A Case Report of Complete Dislocation of Atlantoaxial Joint due to a Traumatic and Pathological Axial Lesion.International journal of spine surgery · 2021Article
- Time to Detection of Growth forFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sputum smear microscopy is widely used for tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment monitoring. We evaluated the correlation between smear microscopy and time to liquid culture positivity during early tuberculosis treatment. The study included patients with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis hospitalized at a tuberculosis reference centre in Germany between 01/2012 and 05/2013. Patient records were reviewed and clinical, radiological and microbiological data were analysed. Sputum samples were collected before treatment initiation and weekly thereafter. A number of 310 sputum samples from 30 patients were analysed. Time to liquid culture positivity inversely correlated with smear grade (Spearman's rho -0.439, p<0.001). There was a better correlation within the first two months vs. after two months of therapy (-0.519 vs. -0.416) with a trend to a more rapid increase in time to positivity between baseline and week 2 in patients who culture-converted within the first two months (5.9 days vs. 9.4 days, p = 0.3). In conclusion, the numbers of acid-fast bacilli in sputum smears of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and time to culture positivity for M. tuberculosis cultures from sputum are correlated before and during tuberculosis treatment. A considerable proportion of patients with culture conversion after two months of therapy continued to have detectable acid-fast bacilli on sputum smears.
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