<b>Comparison of culture methods in pulmonary tuberculosis laboratorial diagnosis</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascihealthsci.v27i2.1418

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate different methods for culturing sputum, Ogawa-Kudoh (O - K) and Petroff, using reduced time for decontamination (Petroff - R), expecting to know their effectiveness in tuberculosis laboratory diagnosis. Four hundred and fifty-nine sputum samples of patients with pulmonary symptoms were cultured using O - K and Petroff - R, to be compared with the regular Petroff method. O - K and Petroff - R methods showed efficient sensitivity in isolating Mycobacterium tuberculosis and micobacteria other than tuberculosis, even in samples with negative acid fast smear. Statistics analysis showed similar contamination rate for O - K when compared to Petroff. These data suggest that O-K, being easy to perform, having low costs, presenting low risk of worker contamination and good sensitivity in detecting M. tuberculosis, should be used in clinical laboratories as a good resource at tuberculosis diagnosis