Sputum conversion at the end of 8weeks among category 1 tuberculosis patients: How reliable are the peripheral laboratory results?

Objective: To assess the quality of week 8 sputum smear AFB microscopy performed by peripheral TB laboratories in Nigeria.

Method: A cross-sectional review was performed of all week 8 tuberculosis sputum smear slides reported for the first quarter of 2009 by peripheral laboratories in five States of Nigeria. Each slide was reviewed by two independent external slide readers as external quality check and also crosschecked with fluorescent microscopy.