Performance of culture and drug susceptibility testing in pulmonary tuberculosis patients in northern China.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a growing problem in China. In 2008, all smear-positive pulmonary TB patients in a city in northern China were expected to undergo routine culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST). We assessed the performance of this system. There were 915 patients, of whom 356 (39%) had culture performed; 275 (30%) had positive cultures and 236 (26%) had DST. Of the 236 patients with DST, 6% of new and 32% of previously treated patients had MDR-TB. Culture and DST is an important service for the correct management of patients, and solutions to improve the current system need to be considered.