Objective To investigate the initial drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( M.tuberculosis) in patients with culture positive pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods 1184 patients who hospitalized in Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital with culture positive pulmonary tuberculosis were enrolled. The absolute density method was used to assess the drug resistance of M. tuberculosis. Results M.tuberculosis were sensitive to all anti-tuberculosis drugs in 834 cases( 70. 44% ) , and resistant in 350 cases( 29. 56% ) , in which initial resistance and secondary resistance accounted for 44. 86% ( 157/350) and 55. 14% ( 193 /350) respectively. In 157 cases with initial resistance, 53 cases ( 33. 8% ) were mono-drug resistant tuberculosis( MonoDR-TB) , of which 38 cases were resistance to Streptomycin( 24. 2% ) ; 72 cases( 45. 9% ) were polydrug-resistant tuberculosis ( PDR-TB) ; 20 cases ( 12. 7% ) were multidrug-resistant tuberculosis ( MDR-TB) ; 12 cases ( 7. 6% ) were extensively drug resistant tuberculosis ( XDR-TB) . There was no totally drug-resistant tuberculosis ( TDR-TB) . Conclusions The initial drug resistance of M.tuberculosis in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis is still serious. Unified management of TB control programs and full supervision of chemotherapy are very imperative.