ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To analyse the contribution of the Ogawa-Kudoh (O-K) swab culture method to the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in four different regions of Brazil. DESIGN: This study was carried out in two phases. Phase 1 was designed to compare the direct swab culture method (O-K) with the culture concentrated method (N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide [NALC-NaOH]); for this purpose, 569 sputum samples were cultured by both methods. Phase 2 was carried out to assess the contribution of the O-K method to the diagnosis of PTB in four different regions in Brazil, based on the evaluation of 19,163 sputum samples. RESULTS: In the first phase of the study, O-K culture had a sensitivity of 94.8% and specificity of 99.8% in cases confirmed by NALC-NaOH/Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture. In the second phase of the study, the overall contribution of O-K culture compared to acid-fast bacilli (AFB) examination (AFB-/culture+) to the diagnosis of PTB was 29.8%. CONCLUSION: O-K culture contributes significantly to the diagnosis of smear-negative PTB. Importantly, this method allows the recovery of clinical isolates in areas where use of the standard culture centrifuge is impossible, indicating that the O-K swab culture method should become a standard method for TB diagnosis in these regions.
