ESTUDO COMPARATIVO ENTRE O ESCARRO E O MATERIAL ORO-FARINGO-LARINGEU PARA A PESQUISA DO MYCOBACTER!UM TUBERCULOSIS

Abstract

A comparative study on the efficiency of sputum artd throat swabs to demonstrate the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was made both by direct microscopic examination and by culture.In 324 microscopical examinations, the sputum revealed 34.3% as positives and the throat material, 18.5%. Only 2 cases that were positive by the latter method were not confirmed by the former. The examination by culture was made with material from the microscopically negative cases. Treatment of the material was clone with trisodium phosphate, which was found to be excellent for this purpose. In 156 cases, 36 were positive, the sputum having revealed 30 positives and the throat material, 9; however, 6 cases wero positive only through the latter method. Therefore the joint use of sputum plus throat material increased the positivity by 20%. Advantages and disadvantages of each method as well as the process used to transfer the throat material from the swabs to the culture medium, are discussed.