Drug Resistance Trends and Patterns of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Isolates from Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Turkey

Background: We aim to determine the proportions and patterns of resistance to first-line drugs: isoniazid (H), rifampicin (R), ethambutol (E) and streptomycin (S) among pulmonary tuberculosis patients. Methods: Strains were obtained from 1584 culture positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients. All specimens were inoculated into L?wenstein-Jensen media (LJ) and TK selective; drug susceptibility tests (DST) were performed for first-line drugs. Results: Multidrug resistant (MDR) were detected in 146 (9.2%) isolates. Three hundred (18.9%) isolates were resistant to H; 220 (13.9%) to R; 168 (10.6%) to S; 137 (8.6%) to E. Any drug resistance was detected in 442 (27.9%) isolates. MDR rate was higher in male patients than females (P = 0.006). MDR rates were different according to the age groups (P = 0.02). The highest rate was in 35 - 44 years and the lowest rate was in 15 - 24 years. Conclusions: We found an association between middle age and male gender and MDR tuberculosis.