OBJECTIVES: UK guidelines advise that @entity1 with @entity358 are isolated in hospital until the results of sputum cultures are negative (culture conversion), typically after 42 days of incubation with no growth. @entity6371 @entity1 may be isolated >= 42 days longer than is necessary for public safety, which has major implications for @entity1 and hospitals. Our objective was to determine whether analysis of time to detection (TTD) in liquid culture could predict the earliest safe discharge date of @entity6371 @entity1 . @entity1 AND METHODS: Fifteen @entity358 @entity1 were identified retrospectively from the London TB Register and hospital records. We performed linear regression of TTD against days elapsed between admission and sample date. If the regression line crossed the observed culture-conversion date at TTD=42 days, the data were deemed to give 'precise prediction' of the earliest safe discharge date. RESULTS: The median length of stay was 91 days (IQR 79-131 days). Culture conversion occurred at a median of 59 days (IQR 46-86 days). Twelve @entity1 were hospitalized beyond culture conversion, with a median overstay of 52 days (IQR 35-68 days). TTD tended to lengthen until culture conversion and, for nearly half of the @entity1 (7/15, 47%), linear regression of TTD against time from admission gave a good fit to the data (r(2)>= 0.6) and supported precise prediction. However, data from the remaining @entity1 showed considerable variation, and linear regression did not support prediction of safe discharge. CONCLUSIONS: TTD data from these @entity358 @entity1 did not support a simple clinical prediction tool, but our analysis was limited by the small size of our sample.

Time to detection in liquid culture of sputum in XXXX does not predict culture conversion for early discharge.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients', 'PATIENTS'] @entity358 :: ('MESH:D008171', 'Disease') :: ['pulmonary MDR-TB'] @entity6371 :: ('MESH:D018088', 'Disease') :: ['MDR-TB']
@entity358 :: (MESH:D008171,Disease) :: ['pulmonary MDR-TB']
