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Reliability of Cord Formation in BACTEC 12B/13A Media for Presumptive Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Laboratories with a High Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

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Abstract.

A total of 1208 positive BACTEC vials were examined for the presence or absence of serpentine cording. A very high (92.9%) rate of laboratory prevalence was obtained for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of this test were 92.7%, 95.3%, 99.6% and 50.0%, respectively. It was concluded that testing cord formation in laboratories that have a high prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex is an exceptionally reliable method for preliminary reporting of cording-positive cases; however, for cording-negative cases, preliminary reports based solely on cord formation are not reliable. It was also observed that the length of the incubation period has a significant effect on cord formation. Incubation periods of 4 days or less are not sufficient to determine noncording in smears prepared from positive BACTEC vials.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Institute for Medical Experimental Research (DETAE), Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    O. Köksalan

  2. Department of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    M. Aydin

  3. Düzen Laboratories, Istanbul, Turkey

    S. Eraslan

  4. Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey

    N. Bekiroglu

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  1. O. Köksalan
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  2. M. Aydin
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  3. S. Eraslan
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  4. N. Bekiroglu
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Köksalan, O., Aydin, M., Eraslan, S. et al. Reliability of Cord Formation in BACTEC 12B/13A Media for Presumptive Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Laboratories with a High Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 21, 314–317 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-002-0701-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-002-0701-9

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