Abstract: Objective To investigate the value of real-time fluorescence detection technique of RNA (SAT constantamplification in monitoring the effect of chemotherapy on patients with sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods Sixty-two patients were selected, who were clinically diagnosed as the first-time retreatment for sputum smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis and were hospitalized in our department from June 2015 to December 2016. After two-month standard anti-tuberculosis treatment, sputum samples were detected by Peng’s vessel acid-fast staining, BACTEC MGIT-960 culture and strain identification, SAT detection. The BACTEC MGIT-960 culture and strain identification were used as gold standards, the value of SAT during the monitoring the therapeutic effect of the anti-tuberculosis drugs was assessed.Results After the treatment, 49 cases out of 62 showed positive results in mycobacterium tuberculosis culture test, among them 42 patients were diagnosed as human type mycobacterium tuberculosis, 7 patients were diagnosed as nontuberculous mycobacteria infection, and 13 cases showed negative results in mycobacterium tuberculosis culture. Thirty-two cases showed positive results in sputum Peng’s vessel acid-fast staining test, and 30 cases showed negative results. Forty-one cases showed positive results in SAT test and 21 cases showed negative results in SAT. SAT results were well concordant with sputum culture results (Kappa value=0.964), and the sensitivity, the specificity, the positive predictive value and the negative predictive value of SAT were 97.62%, 100%, 100% and 95.24% respectively. Peng’s vessel acid-fast staining results were badly concordant with MGIT-960 culture results (Kappa value=0.086), and the sensitivity, the specificity, the positive predictive value and the negative predictive value of Peng’s vessel acid-fast staining were 54.76%, 55.00%,71.88% and 36.67% respectively. Conclusion SAT results can be used as good indices during the monitoring therapeutic effects of drugs used for the first-time retreatment in patients with sputum smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis, which is worth promoting.

Key words: nucleic acid amplification technology, tuberculosis, lung, mycobacterium tuberculosis, drug efficacy