Indian Journal of Pathology and Microbiology (Jan 2009)

Transport and storage of sputum specimen by using cetylpyridinium chloride for isolation of mycobacteria

  • Pal Nita,
  • Sharma Babita,
  • Malhotra Bharti,
  • Rishi Suman

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 52, no. 1
pp. 59 – 61

Abstract

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Of the 191 sputum specimens that were collected from pulmonary tuberculosis patients, 78.65% (140/178) specimens were culture positive when processed within 48 h by the NaOH method. The culture positivity in the same specimen that were stored with cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) and processed after 7-8 days was 70.22% (125/178), whereas those stored without CPC and processed by the NaOH method was 46.62% (83/178). The difference in number of positive cultures obtained before storage and after storage (without CPC) was statistically significant (P = 0.001). Culture positivity by the CPC method was comparable with that of NaOH method before storage and the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.35).

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