Archives of Clinical Infectious Diseases
Cigarettes smoking is a risk factor for tuberculosis (TB). Associations between smoking and TB disease have been reported, but there are few reports on the influence of smoking on the sputum smear and culture conversion time. This study surveyed the possible association between smoking and sputum smear conversion time among new smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients.
Between May 2005 and December 2006, we evaluated smokers and non-smokers patients with pulmonary TB referred to Zahedan Tuberculosis Center (Southeastern Iran). Patients were not immunosuppressed or infected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Drug resistant cases were also excluded.
A total of 200 TB patients, including 100 smokers, were evaluated. There was a significant delay in sputum smear conversion time between smokers and non-smokers 2 (53% vs. 10%, respectively, p<0.001) and 3 months following the treatment (19% vs. 2%, respectively, p<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in failure rate (a positive smear at the end of the 5th month of treatment) between two groups (95% vs. 97%).
Our results revealed that smoking is significantly associated with a delay in sputum smear conversion time, hence, pulmonary TB cases must be strongly encouraged to cease smoking.
© 2010, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
Ghasemian R, Najafi N, Yadegarinia D, Alian S. Association Between Cigarette Smoking and Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Men: A Case-Control Study in Mazandaran, Iran. Arch Clin Infect Dis. 2009;4(3):. doi:
Alavi-Naini R, Sharifi-Mood B, Metanat M. Association Between Tuberculosis and Smoking. Int J High Risk Behav Addict. 2012;1(2):71-74. doi: https://doi.org/10.5812/ijhrba.5215
Ebrahimzadeh A, Mohammadifard M, Naseh G. Comparison of Chest X-Ray Findings of Smear Positive and Smear Negative Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis. I J Radiol. 2014;11(4):e13575. doi: https://doi.org/10.5812/iranjradiol.13575
Kazerani M, Kazerani M, Ashrafzadeh K, Rahiman S, Mottaghy M, et al. The Follow-up of 360 Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis After 2 Months Treatment With Anti-tubercular Agents in Iran. Arch Clin Infect Dis. 2018;13(4):e62132. doi: https://doi.org/10.5812/archcid.62132
Alavi SM, Moradzadegan H, Khoshkhoy MM. Seroprevalence of HIV in Newly Detected Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Khuzestan, Iran: Should HIV Testing Be Included in National Tuberculosis Program in This Region?. Jundishapur J Microbiol. 2013;6(2):193-196. doi: https://doi.org/10.5812/jjm.5222
Ordering Reprints
Articles are published under the Creative Commons license stated on each article. No permission or royalty fee is required for uses permitted by that license. CCC handles optional bulk and customized reprint orders. Any quotation covers production and delivery services only, not copyright permission. > Request Reprints from CCC
Author(s):
