BACKGROUND Liquid culture systems are more rapid and sensitive for both the detection and drug susceptibility testing (DST) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. SETTING St Peter's TB Specialised Hospital and public health laboratory, Addis Ababa. OBJECTIVE To compare the microscopic-observation drug susceptibility (MODS) assay with the BACTEC-MGIT 960 system for isoniazid and rifampicin DST (i.e....

The effect of immediate incubation of blood cultures at 37°C on the turnaround time and the impact of Gram stain results on antimicrobial management were investigated. During a 6-month period, blood cultures collected at the emergency department outside laboratory operating hours were preincubated at 37°C until transportation to the laboratory. Upon the arrival of blood cultures at the laborato...

To evaluate the utility of Gen-Probe AccuProbes for the identification of mycobacteria directly from BACTEC TB 12B vials containing acid-fast bacilli, culture results for 11,375 clinical specimens other than blood received from 1 January 1992 to 30 September 1993 were reviewed retrospectively. During this period, a total of 359 of 11,375 BACTEC vials were positive for acid-fast bacilli and were...

SETTING Initial isolates should be tested for drug susceptibility to confirm the anticipated effectiveness of chemotherapy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate E-test strips for susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. DESIGN A proportion method using Lowenstein-Jensen medium and the Bactec radiometric system were compared with the E-test (isoniazid [INH], rifampicin [RMP], ethambutol [EMB] ...

PURPOSE The correlation between the presence of specific gene sequence of M. tuberculosis and specific diagnosis of clinical tuberculosis is not known. This study compared the results of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of M. tuberculosis specific DNA sequences (IS6110, 65kDa, 38kDa and mRNA coding for 85B protein) from different clinical samples of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tub...

BACKGROUND Mortality for candidemia ranges from 15% to 35%. Current guidelines recommend inoculating blood into three aerobic and three anaerobic blood culture bottles when candidemia is suspected, without mention of a fungal blood culture bottle. OBJECTIVE To determine the value of the BACTEC Myco/F Lytic blood culture media in the diagnosis of fungemia. METHODS A two-year retrospective cr...

Two strains of fastidious mycobacteria were isolated from two patients with AIDS and clinical disease suggestive of Mycobacterium avium complex infection. Acid-fast bacilli were isolated from blood and bone marrow of both patients in BACTEC 12B and/or 13A media. The acid-fast bacilli failed to grow on subculture to routine Löwenstein-Jensen medium containing pyruvate and egg yolk agar. After se...

A commercially available agar-slide blood culture bottle (Septi-Chek; Roche Diagnostics, Div. Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., Nutley, N.J.) was compared with the radiometric blood culture system (BACTEC; Johnston Laboratories, Inc., Towson, Md.) in 8,544 paired blood cultures from adult patients. The systems were inoculated with equal volumes (10 ml) of blood. Overall, there was no statistically signif...

A prospective study of 111 adult patients with a pleural effusion was carried out in an area with a high prevalence of tuberculosis to compare the yield of bedside with laboratory inoculation of pleural fluid, and the yield and speed of a radiometric mycobacterial culture system (BACTEC) with that of conventional culture. The use of adenosine deaminase activity in pleural fluid as a diagnostic ...