Recovery of mycobacteria from patients with cystic fibrosis. |
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Authors: | F C Bange P Kirschner E C B?ttger |
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Affiliation: | Institute of Medical Microbiology, Medical School Hannover, 30625 Hannover, Germany. bange@mikrobio.mh-hannover.de |
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Abstract: | Despite decontamination, overgrowth by pseudomonads renders cultural isolation of mycobacteria from respiratory specimens of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) difficult or impossible. We performed a prospective study by comparing levels of reduction of overgrowth and recovery of mycobacteria using either pretreatment with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NALC)-NaOH alone or pretreatment with NALC-NaOH and then with oxalic acid. From 406 specimens of 148 CF patients, 11 specimens were positive for mycobacteria, 5 of which grew mycobacteria after decontamination by either procedure. Three specimens grew mycobacteria only after decontamination with NALC-NaOH, whereas three specimens grew mycobacteria only after treatment with NALC-NaOH followed by oxalic acid but were overgrown after decontamination with NALC-NaOH. Thus, inactivation of mycobacteria by the more aggressive oxalic acid treatment offsets its beneficial effect of reducing the proportion of cultures overgrown with microorganisms other than mycobacteria. |
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