Abstract: Abstract：Objective   To understand the laboratory quality control of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) and culture for  Mycobacteria tuberculosis from sputum specimens in Pinggu district, and to explore the factors that affected the results of AFB and culture in order to enhance detective rate of smear- and culture-positive sputum specimens. Methods  1284 sputum specimens from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were detected by Ziehl-Neelsen staining and culture for   Mycobacteria tuberculosis  followed the method recommended by the Chinese Antituberculosis Association. Results  The positive rates of smear and culture were 12.2%(157/1284) and 12.9%(166/1284), respectively. The rates of smear- and culture-positive, smear-negative and culturepositive, smear-positive and culture-negative were 11.1%(106/958), 4.0%（38/958） and 0.5%(5/958), respectively. The rate of smear-positive and culture-negative from sputum specimens was 8.6%（28/326）in the following-up patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. The rate of bacterial quantity in the smearpositive and culture-negative specimens less than 2+ were 87.9% (29/33). 71.4% (20/28) of the specimens with smear-positive and culture-negative were collected at the end of 2 or 3 month after treating. The rate of specimens with smear-positive and culture-negative in the follow-up patients was higher significantly than that of the specimens in the new patients（P<0.001）. No mistake result of smear and quantity error was found during this year by blind re-check . Conclusion   The accuracy of detecting result is verified by comparison smear with culture. The quality control of smear and culture in Pinggu district should be improved in the future.

Key words: Sputum, Bacteriological techniques, Mycobacterium tuberculosis , Microscopy