[Tuberculosis detection in the emergency room: utility of same day smears]

Conducting a same day smears is a strategy that has recently been adopted by the World Health Organization. Our study sought to determine the additional diagnostic yield of a second sputum smear taken on the same day among patients with respiratory symptoms, attended at the emergency room from two hospitals in Lima. We included 270 patients from January to November 2011, which were asked two samples of sputum within two hours; the samples were processed by the Ziehl Neelsen method. The frequency of positive sputum smears was 18.5%. The additional diagnostic yield for the second smear was 20.9%. Considering the high prevalence of tuberculosis diagnosed by sputum smear, it is suggested that this test be included routinely in the emergency rooms of hospitals in Lima Metro area.