Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of two liquid-phase culture media for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Patients and methods: From May to July 2003, sputum samples for culture were obtained from patients with respiratory symptoms attending the Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia. These were cultured in Ogawa medium, mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT), and modified Middlebrook 7H9. Results were compared against a composite reference standard. Results: One hundred sputum specimens from 100 patients were included. Of these, 33 had culture-proven tuberculosis. The sensitivity of MGIT was found to be 100%. The modified Middlebrook 7H9 medium was found to have a sensitivity of 72.73%, while the sensitivity of Ogawa medium was found to be 69.70%. The mean growing time for MGIT was 12.18 days (95% confidence interval 10.24 to 14.12; p < 0.01 vs. Ogawa and modified Middlebrook 7H9); for modified Middlebrook 7H9 was 16.65 days (95% confidence interval 14.85 to 18.80; p < 0.01 vs. Ogawa), and for the Ogawa medium 25.74 days (95% confidence interval 22.22 to 29.6). Conclusions: The liquid culture medium MGIT was superior to the modified Middlebrook 7H9 and the Ogawa media, both in terms of sensitivity and shorter growing time of colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The modified Middlebrook 7H9 medium is significantly faster but comparable in diagnostic performance to Ogawa. Costs remain an issue for MGIT. © 2008 International Society for Infectious Diseases.