الفهرس 
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Abstract
1) patients (56.8%) were more than females (43.2%).
2) The majority (65.9%) of the patient came from rural areas while (34.1%) patients came from urban areas.
3) Regarding the level of education, different levels were recorded ranging from uneducated patients to tertiary educated patients.
4) People, whether they had occupation or not, were not immune to tuberculosis
5) As regards smoking status,we found that 22.7% of patients were currently smokers and 15.9% patients were former smokers
6) Various comorbidities were recorded among the studied patients and the most common of these comorbidities was diabetes mellitus (18.2%).
7) The majority of patients (52.3%) had history of previous contact with tuberculous patients .either household contact, workplace contact, or social places contact.
8) Spontaneously produced sputum was the respiratory specimen most commonly used (61.4 % of the cases) to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis.
9) Ziehl Neelsen stain was the method most frequently used (84.1% of the cases) for detection of AFB.
10) Diversity of symptoms and signs were recorded in the studied patients. Cough was the most common and reported in all patients (100%|).
11) Majority of the patients (61.4%) was underweight based on the BMI.
12) Radiographic imaging was abnormal in all patients. The majority of these abnormalities (88.6% of cases) was detected by chest x-ray while the minority (11.4%) required chest CT scan.
13) Different hematological abnormalities were detected among the studied patients by(14) examining their blood pictures. ESR was also high with different values in all patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
14) Diagnosis delay and treatment delay were recorded among the pulmonary tuberculosis patients included in this study.
15) In the majority of patients (79.6%), the time for sputum smear conversion was ≤ two months (successful conversion) while it exceeded two months (delayed conversion) in only 9 patients (20.4%).
16) Our results indicated that age ≥ 60 years, cavitary lung lesions, and raised ESR > 100ml/hr were independent risk factorsfor delayed conversion.
Conclusion
Recommendation
Conclusion
In conclusion, our results were almost in agreement with most of the results of previous studies. Our analysis showed that there was no change in the pattern of presentation of pulmonary tuberculosis in adult patients, as well as at the time of sputum smear conversion after initiation of anti-tuberculosis therapy.
Recommendation
We recommend the following:
1) First, conducting larger, multicenter studies on the time of sputum smear conversion similtaneously with sputum culture conversion for confirmation.
2) Second, investigating more potential factors that may predict and/or influence time of sputum conversion.
3) Third, intensifying treatment and precautions against tuberculosis transmission for patients who have risk factors for delayed sputum conversion in order to reduce the spread of infection to contacts.