Patterns of drug resistance among patients with tuberculous pleural effusion in Greece.

Setting: Data on the relationship between pleural tuberculosis (TB) and anti-tuberculosis drug resistance are scarce.

Objective: To determine the patterns of drug resistance among pleural Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in Greece and the incidence of tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) among patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) or extensively drug-resistant (XDR) pulmonary TB.

Design: Drug susceptibility testing (DST) results recorded in the database of the National Reference Centre for Tuberculosis in Athens, Greece, over a 9-year period (2003-2011) were reviewed.