THURSDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- About 5 percent of South Korean patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), and these patients are less likely to have successful treatment and more likely to die, according to a study in the Nov. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Doh Hyung Kim, from Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, South Korea, and colleagues reviewed the medical records of 1,407 South Korean patients newly diagnosed with or re-treated for HIV-negative MDR-TB from 2000-2002.

The researchers found that 5.3 percent of patients had XDR-TB (MDR-TB with bacillary resistance to both ofloxacin and kanamycin). The overall default rate was 32 percent but was only 16 percent in patients with XDR-TB. Patients with XDR-TB were significantly less likely to have treatment success (29.3 versus 46.2 percent, odds ratio 0.23) and were significantly more likely to die from any cause (49.3 versus 19.4 percent, hazard ratio 3.25) or TB-related disease (41.3 versus 11.8 percent, hazard ratio 4.45).

"As we wait for new diagnostics and drugs that can meet the challenge of XDR-TB, we must work with what we presently have to create the optimal conditions for their success, and thus seize the opportunity we have to eliminate tuberculosis," write the authors of an accompanying editorial.

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