Peres RL, Maciel EL, Morais CG, Ribeiro FCK, Vinhas SA, Pinheiro C, Dietze R, Johnson JL, Eisenach K, Palaci M. Comparison of two concentrations of NALC-NaOH for decontamination of sputum for mycobacterial culture.
Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2009;
13:1572-1575. [PMID:
19919781]
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Abstract
This study compared the effect of using two different concentrations of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in the N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide (NALC-NaOH) method for sputum decontamination on smear and culture positivity and the proportion of contaminated cultures: 14% of cultures were contaminated using the standard final 1% NaOH concentration during processing compared to 11% contaminated cultures using a final 1.25% NaOH concentration (P < 0.008). The proportion of cultures positive for mycobacteria decreased from 21% to 11% for sputum processed with 1% and 1.25% final NaOH concentrations, respectively (P < 0.001). Our findings suggest that a small reduction in culture contamination did not justify the considerable loss of positive cultures.
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