Abstract
Unclassified mycobacteria were isolated from 36 of 35,555 clinical specimens cultured for M. tuberculosis. The majority of isolations were from patients suspected of having tuberculosis and from whom repeat attempts at culture failed to yield typical tubercle bacilli. Fifteen strains thus far studied were not capable of causing generalized tuberculosis in guinea pigs, and all were highly resistant to the commonly employed antituberculous therapeutic agents. Eleven of the 15 strains were resistant to 100 or more μg./ml. of streptomycin; 12 strains were resistant to 25 or more μg./ml. of para - aminosalicylic acid; and all 15 showed growth in the presence of 50 or more μg./ml. of isoniazid. All strains were niacin-negative and catalase-positive. In the absence of other cultural findings, isolation of anonymous mycobacteria poses a major problem, especially in those cases in which the clinical and radiographic findings are typically those of tuberculosis.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- HNATKO S. I. The application of bacteriophages to the study of acid-fast microorganisms from tuberculous patients. Can J Microbiol. 1956 Feb;2(1):39–44. doi: 10.1139/m56-006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- KONNO K., SBARRA A. J. Differentiation of human tubercle bacilli from atypical acid-fast bacilli. Am Rev Tuberc. 1959 Jun;79(6):810–812. doi: 10.1164/artpd.1959.79.6.810. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- LEWIS A. G., Jr, LASCHE E. M., ARMSTRONG A. L., DUNBAR F. P. A clinical study of the chronic lung disease due to nonphotochromogenic acid-fast bacilli. Ann Intern Med. 1960 Aug;53:273–285. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-53-2-273. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- MANKIEWICZ E. Agar diffusion precipitation and complement fixation tests applied to the study of the antigenic relationships between chromogenic acid-fast bacteria and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Can J Microbiol. 1958 Dec;4(6):565–570. doi: 10.1139/m58-063. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- TARSHIS M. S. Further investigation on the selective activity of fluid thioglycollate medium for group differentiation of M. tuberculosis, anonymous (atypical) acid-fast bacilli, and saprophytic mycobacteria. J Lab Clin Med. 1959 Oct;54:630–633. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]