A Comparison Of Direct Preparation And Culture Results In The Mycobacteriology Laboratory Of A Resea

Early diagnosis and regular follow-up of tuberculosis patients is highly important. For this reason, mycobacteriology laboratories are of great importance in the diagnosis and follow-up of tuberculosis disease. It was aimed to compare direct microscopy and culture results of predignosed patients who applied to our hospital The study was conducted on the direct microscopy and culture results of a sample of 1621 patients with a pre-diagnosis of tuberculosis in the mycobacteriology laboratory of our hospital. Of these patients, 1005 (62 %) were male and 616 (38 %) were female. The average age of the patients was 51.3. In all the samples taken from the patients with a pre-diagnosis of tuberculosis, acit-fast bacilli (AFB) and culture positivity rates were found to be 1.7 % (28/1621) and 2.8 % (47/1621) respectively. Fourteen of the 22 samples in which AFB were found in the smear were detected as LJ positive and 13 were detected as MGIT positive. Furthermore, of the 25 samples in which AFB were not found in the smear, proliferation was observed in the LJ in 19 samples and in the MGIT in 17 samples. 3.9 % (64/1621) of the samples were assessed as contamination. The majority of the 53 samples that were found to be AFB and/or culture positive consisted of sputum (70 %) and pleural fluid (11 %). Although found to be culture positive, 25 (53.2 %) of these samples were found to be AFB negative. In conclusion, it was considered that culture sensitivity is higher than microscopy in the diagnosis of tuberculosis and both require to be evaluated together.