AIMS To compare the performance of the Sentinel blood culture system with two other systems for the recovery of streptococci and anaerobes. METHODS Blood cultures were taken from 55 patients one to two minutes after dental extraction. The samples were tested by the radiometric Bactec 460; the Isolator 10, which works by lysis centrifugation; and Sentinel, a fully automated system, which detec...

We evaluated the performance of BACTEC MGIT 960 for automated testing of the susceptibility of 133 strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to streptomycin, isoniazid, rifampin, and ethambutol. The BACTEC MGIT 960 results were compared with those obtained with the radiometric BACTEC 460TB system, and when there was disagreement, the method of proportion on agar plates was used as a reference metho...

We compared urine culturing performed by the calibrated loop method with a screening system (BACTEC). A total of 852 urine specimens were examined by both the conventional loop method and the BACTEC system. With the loop method, 193 (22.6%) urine samples were positive, whereas with the BACTEC system, 185 (21.7%) were positive (sensitivity, 96.01%). At a breakpoint of 10(4) CFU/ml, eight false-n...

To compare the performance of the BACTEC 13A (Becton Dickinson, Sparks, Md.), BACTEC MYCO/F LYTIC (Becton Dickinson), BacT/ALERT MB (bioMérieux, Durham, N.C.), and ISOLATOR 10 lysis-centrifugation (Wampole Laboratories, Cranbury, N.J.) systems for detection of mycobacteremia in adults, we inoculated 5-ml aliquots of blood from patients with suspected mycobacteremia into the bottle or tube requi...

A 4-month trial involving 2,563 routine clinical specimens was conducted to compare the improved BACTEC TB system (12B medium) with the conventional Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) media for the isolation, identification, and susceptibility testing of mycobacteria. One hundred sixty-two mycobacterial isolates were recovered, 147 (91%) with BACTEC and 118 (73%) with LJ media. Of these, 62 were Mycobacter...

We compared the sensitivity and time to detection of growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the thin layer agar (TLA) compared to BACTEC MGIT960. The average time for growth of M. tuberculosis in TLA and BACTEC MGIT960 was 10.6 and 9.6 days, respectively. The sensitivity of detection of M. tuberculosis was 97.3% on TLA and 97% on BACTEC MGIT960 for smear positive samples. TLA showed comparable...

The performances of two continuously monitoring mycobacterial culture systems-ESP Culture System II (ESP II; Trek Diagnostics, Inc. , Westlake, Ohio) and BACTEC MGIT 960 (BD Biosciences, Sparks, Md. )-were compared. In addition to both liquid media, all specimens were plated onto Middlebrook 7H11/7H11 selective agar. A total of 3, 151 specimens of all types (56.3% were respiratory specimens) we...

The reliability of the BACTEC MGIT 960 system, an automated version of the Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT), for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was evaluated on 78 clinical isolates. Rifampin (RMP), isoniazid (INH), streptomycin (SM), and ethambutol (EMB) were tested at the following concentrations: 1.0 microg/ml for RMP, 0.1 and 0.4 microg/ml for IN...

The BACTEC Microbacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) 960 system was evaluated to determine how it compares with the BACTEC 460 radiometric system and solid media for recovery of Mycobacterium bovis from tissue samples. A total of 506 bovine lymph node samples were collected from abattoirs in the United States and Mexico between November 2003 and September 2004. Processed samples were inoculate...