Chest X-ray and bacteriology in the initial phase of treatment of 800 male patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

Objective: To evaluate chest X-rays of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and to determine whether the extent of radiographic lesions correlates with bacteriological parameters.

Methods: In this retrospective, descriptive study, we evaluated chest X-rays, as well as AFB detection by smear microscopy and culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, initially and during the first two months of treatment, in 800 male patients hospitalized between 1995 and the present at a 250-bed hospital in northwestern Turkey.

Results: The initial mean ESR was 58 ± 37 mm/h.