In response to the need for rapid, inexpensive, high-throughput assays for antimycobacterial drug screening, a microplate-based assay which uses Alamar blue reagent for determination of growth was evaluated. MICs of 30 antimicrobial agents against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, M. tuberculosis H37Ra, and Mycobacterium avium were determined in the microplate Alamar blue assay (MABA) with both...

The Bactec 9240 and the BacT/Alert blood culture systems were compared as a means for detection of bacterial contaminants in whole blood, concentrated red cells, and plasma preparations prepared from umbilical cord blood (UCB) samples. Ninety-two UCB units seeded with low levels of various bacteria were evaluated. In more than 50% of cases, growth was not detected in plasma using either system ...

The resurgence of tuberculosis along with the increased resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has emphasized the need for timely susceptibility testing for control of the disease. Previous studies have shown that rapid susceptibility testing can be accomplished for isoniazid, ethambutol, and rifampin using the flow cytometric assays. In this study we compared the flow cytometric susceptibili...

The reliability of mycobacterial growth indicator tubes (MGIT) for testing susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to ethambutol and streptomycin was evaluated by comparing MGIT results to those obtained by the radiometric BACTEC TB system and the method of proportion. The method of proportion was considered the reference method. To resolve discrepancies, all three testing methods were rep...

BACKGROUND Mycobacterium species are grown using specific media that increase laboratory cost, thus hampering their diffusion in resource-limited countries. Preliminary data suggested that versatile blood agar may be also used for mycobacterial culture. METHODOLOGY We examined the growth of 41 different Mycobacterium species on 5% blood agar. Over a 24-month period we analysed isolation of my...

We used the BACTEC system to evaluate the effects of several decontamination methods and the addition of antibiotics on the viability of Mycobacterium ulcerans. The effects of polyoxyethylene stearate or egg yolk as supplements were also evaluated to determine their impact on the growth of M. ulcerans. Strains of different geographic origins were subjected to Petroff, reversed Petroff, oxalic a...

Recovery of Mycobacterium avium complex organisms from 412 lysis-centrifugation (Isolator) concentrates of blood specimens obtained from human immunodeficiency virus-positive individuals was attempted with the following media (and Isolator concentrate inoculum volumes): BACTEC 12B broth (0.2 and 1.0 ml), Lowenstein-Jensen slants (0.1 ml), and Middlebrook 7H10/11 agar (0.1 ml). A total of 42 M. ...

The LCx Mycobacterium tuberculosis ligase chain reaction system (Abbott Diagnostic Division, Abbott Park, Ill.) was used to detect M. tuberculosis in 150 consecutive BACTEC vials on the day on which a positive growth index (GI) was recorded. By LCx, M. tuberculosis DNA was detected in BACTEC vials on average 2.6 days before the presence of acid-fast bacilli could be confirmed by microscopic exa...

The in vitro activities of 12 macrolide compounds against 28 Mycobacterium avium complex strains isolated from patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome were determined by the conventional proportion method and by the BACTEC method. Clarithromycin (A-56268; TE-031), a new macrolide compound, was the most active agent tested, inhibiting 90% of strains at an MIC of 4 micrograms/ml by the B...