What Is A Clinical Significance Of Sputum Afb Culture Trace?

초록

Mycobacterial infection is an important issue in public health control. Still there are many patients of pulmonary tuberculosis in Korea. To identify and treat the patients who have smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis are challenging. And sputum acid fast bacilli (AFB) culture would be reported several weeks later. There are many cases that sputum AFB cultures are trace (less than 50 colonies) but their meanings are not described. We analyzed the differences between sputum culture trace and more than 1 positive group. From Jan. 2010 to Aug. 2010, one hundred fifty one patients were visited and treated in a tertiary hospital of Incheon city, South Korea. Retrospective, chart reviews were performed. Sputum AFB smears and cultures, tuberculosis identification, AFB drug sensitivity were revealed. Chi-square tests were done for difference between culture trace and more than 1 positive group. Fifty six cases were sputum culture trace. In trace group, sputum AFB smear negative were 44, trace 10, and more than 1 positive 2. There were AFB identification results (p=0.764). Except NTM, 84 cases had drug sensitivity results (p=0.856) Sputum AFB culture trace group revealed similar patterns of drug sensitivities, NTM rates. Even though AFB culture reported trace, we would prescribe antituberculous drugs and order AFB identification and drug sensitivity test