Impact of Implementation of an Automated Liquid Culture System on Diagnosis of Tuberculous Pleurisy

This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of implementation of an automated liquid culture system on the diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy in an HIV-uninfected patient population. We retrospectively compared the culture yield, time to positivity, and contamination rate of pleural effusion samples in the BACTEC Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube 960 (MGIT) and Ogawa media among patients with tuberculous pleurisy. Out of 104 effusion samples, 43 (41.3%) were culture positive on either the MGIT or the Ogawa media. The culture yield of MGIT was higher (40.4%, 42/104) than that of Ogawa media (18.3%, 19/104) (P<0.001). One of the samples was positive only on the Ogawa medium. The median time to positivity was faster in the MGIT (18 days, range 8-32 days) than in the Ogawa media (37 days, range 20-59 days) (P<0.001). No contamination or growth of nontuberculous mycobacterium was observed on either of the culture media. In conclusion, the automated liquid culture system could provide approximately twice as high yields and fast results in effusion culture, compared to solid media. Supplemental solid media may have a limited impact on maximizing sensitivity in effusion culture; however, further studies are required.

Evaluation of the usefulness of phage amplification technology in the diagnosis of patients with paucibacillary tuberculosis.

The present study was undertaken to assess the performance of the Fast Plaque TB(TM) (FPTB) test in the diagnostically difficult group of paucibacillary tuberculosis (TB) and to compare its results with the conventional bacteriological methods. The study was conducted on a total of 139 patients, who were negative for TB in sputum-smear examination. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) or pleural biopsy specimens collected from these patients were subjected to smear examination, LJ culture and FPTB test. The smear, culture and the FPTB positivity rates were compared between patients with pulmonary and pleuro-pulmonary involvement. The FPTB test was found to register an overall sensitivity of 58.8% and specificity of 97.9%. The positive and negative predictive values of the test were 98.1 and 56.5, respectively. Among patients with paucibacillary TB, on head-to-head comparison, we found that the sensitivity and specificity values of the FPTB test were marginally better than smear-microscopy and inferior to culture on LJ media.

Primary community-acquired pneumonia by Escherichia coli: case report and review of the literature

Lactente de dois anos, sexo feminino, convulsiva cronica, foi admitida por pneumonia com seis dias de evolucao. Ao RX: pneumonia lobar superior direita. Colhidas culturas de liquido pleural e sangue e iniciados oxacilina e cloranfenicol. Apesar do tratamento, a crianca foi a obito no terceiro dia de internacao. Os resultados das culturas colhidos a admissao (liquido pleural e sangue), foram positivos para Escherichia coli. Nenhum outro foco foi identificado. Os autores discutem os aspectos clinicos e fisiopatologicos da pneumonia por Escherichia coli, e fazem uma revisao bibliografica sobre o tema

Cultivation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from pleural tissue and its histopathology in suspected cases of tuberculous pleural effusion.

The majority of idiopathic pleural effusion are considered to be of tuberculous etiology. The culture of bacilli provide most authentic evidence of disease process. This study was carried out on 21 cases of suspected tuberculous pleural effusion. The pleural fluid and tissue was subjected for smear examination, and cultivation of tubercle bacilli along with pleural biopsy. Overall the diagnosis could be made out of 8 (38.09%) cases. The cultivation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from pleural tissue was more sensitive (33.33%) as compared to histopathology (19.05%). However, the triad of cultivation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from pleural tissue, pleural histopathology and pleural fluid smear examination or culture should be done in each suspected case of tuberculous effusion.

Pneumonia pneumococica de evolucao atipica em criancas / Pneumococcal pneumonia with atypical evolution in children

Os autores apresentam 13 casos de pneumonia pneumococica aguda em crianca cujo padrao de apresentacao e evolucao mimetizava pneumonia de outras etiologias, em especial, a pneumonia estafilococica. Tecem comentarios sobre a provavel multiplicidade de fatores envolvidos no comportamento anomalo da infeccao pulmomar nestas criancas e sugerem que, em pelo menos sete delas, os pneumococos eram moderadamente resistentes a penicilina. O Streptococcus pneumoniae tem sido considerado, ao longo do tempo, o agente principal das pneumonias bacterianas agudas, de origem comunitaria, fora do periodo neonatal. Em nosso meio, o pneumococo foi identificado em 18 a 35 por cento das pneumonias bacterianas em criancas, em uma serie de trabalhos , sendo o agente etiologico principal em todas as faixas etarias, com excecao do primeiro mes de vida. Antes do advento da antibioticoterapia, a mortalidade de criancas com pneumonia oscilava de 20 a 50 por cento. Esta alta taxa decaiu, drasticamente, para menos de 1 por cento na era antibiotica. A alta eficacia dos antimicrobianos contra este tipo de infeccao, traduzida por rapida melhora clinica e radiologica dos pacientes e a raridade das complicacoes, nao estimularam muitos estudos sobre o assunto....