Characteristics and Treatment Outcomes of Patients with MDR and XDR Tuberculosis in a TB Referral Hospital in Beijing: A 13-Year Experience

BACKGROUND Information on treatment outcomes among hospitalized patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) are scarce in China. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We conducted this retrospective study to analyze the characteristics and treatment outcomes in MDR- and XDR-TB patients in the 309 Hospital in Beijing, China during 1996-2009. Socio-demographic and clinical data were retrieved from medical records and analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify risk factors associated with poor treatment outcomes and Cox proportional hazards regression model was further used to determine risk factors associated with death in TB patients. Among the 3,551 non-repetitive hospitalized TB patients who had drug susceptibility testing (DST) results, 716 (20.2%) had MDR-TB and 51 (1.4%) had XDR-TB. A total of 3,270 patients who had medical records available were used for further analyses. Treatment success rates (cured and treatment completed) were 90.9%, 53.4% and 29.2% for patients with non-MDR-TB, patients with MDR-TB excluding XDR-TB and patients with XDR-TB, respectively. Independent risk factors associated with poor treatment outcomes in MDR-TB patients included being a migrant (adjusted OR = 1.77), smear-positivity at treatment onset (adjusted OR = 1.94) and not receiving 3 or more potentially effective drugs (adjusted OR = 3.87). Independent risk factors associated with poor treatment outcomes in XDR-TB patients were smear-positivity at treatment onset (adjusted OR = 10.42) and not receiving 3 or more potentially effective drugs (adjusted OR = 14.90). The independent risk factors associated with death in TB patients were having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (adjusted HR = 5.25) and having hypertension (adjusted HR = 4.31). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE While overall satisfactory treatment success for non-MDR-TB patients was achieved, more intensive efforts should be made to better manage MDR- and XDR-TB cases in order to improve their treatment outcomes and to minimize further emergence of so-called totally drug-resistant TB cases.