Abstract: Abstract：Objective  To know the TB case-finding in prisoners and its trend in Tianjin prison system.  Methods  Tianjin center for TB control and prevention initiated TB case-finding in prison system since 2000 through physical examination of new prisoner, general screening, and passive case finding. During 2000 to 2009, 1811 active TB cases were diagnosed. Data in last decade was collected and the methods of TB case-finding, characteristic and trend of TB in prisons were analyzed.  Results  In the 1811 TB cases, smearpositive pulmonary TB accounted for 9.7%(176/1811) and smear negative accounted for 82.9%(1502/1811), and 7.3%(133/1811) were TB pleurisy; the majority of TB were male and young adults, male accounted 98.3%(1780/1811); 25—54 age category accounted 84.0%(1522/1811). The proportion of retreatment cases decreased from 39.0%(144/369) in 2000 to 3.3%(7/211) in 2009; In terms of case detection methods, patients detected through massive screening decreased from 70.2%(207/295) in 2001 to 19.4%(41/211) in 2009, while the other two methods-new prisoners physical examination and passive case-finding contributed 7.5%(22/295) and 22.4%(66/295) in 2001 respectively, and increased to 38.4%(81/211) and 42.2%(89/211) in 2009; Patients with suspicious TB symptoms, namely cough and expectoration for more than 2 weeks, or having bloody sputum or hemoptysis, decreased from 56.9% in 2000 to 28.4% in 2009; for the cases detected by passive case-finding, the patients’ delay in health seeking reduced from 38.38 days in 2000 to 8.41 days in 2009. Conclusion   Physical examination of new prisoner, general screening, and passive case finding were three main methods for tuberculosis case-finding in prisoners. However, the proportion of patients detected by general screening decreased, while increased for other two methods; the proportion of retreatment and with TB suspicious symptoms decreased; the patients’ delay in health seeking reduced. These findings indicate that tuberculosis cases in prisons became more timely, and cas-finding methods achieved good effect. In the future, we will continue to combine these three methods in case finding in prisoners. 

Key words: Prisons, Tuberculosis, pulmonary/prevention &, control, Tuberculosis, pleural/prevention &, control, Tianjin city