Purpose: To evaluate, the efficacy of BACTEC 460 TB system for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai, India.

Methods: We compared 12,726 clinical specimens using BACTEC 460 TB system and conventional method for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis over a period of six years.

Result: The overall recovery rate was 39% by BACTEC technique and 29% using Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium. An average detection time for B actec0 460 TB system was found to be 13.3 days and 15.3 days as against 31.2 days and 35.3 days by LJ method for respiratory and nonrespiratory specimens respectively. The average reporting time for drug susceptibility results ranged from 6-10 days for the BACTEC 460 TB system.

Conclusions: The BACTEC system is a good system for level II laboratories, especially in the diagnosis of extrapulmonary and smear negative tuberculosis.