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. 1983 Feb;17(2):255–259. doi: 10.1128/jcm.17.2.255-259.1983

Diagnosis of bacterial pulmonary infections with quantitative protected catheter cultures obtained during bronchoscopy.

H M Pollock, E L Hawkins, J R Bonner, T Sparkman, J B Bass Jr
PMCID: PMC272617  PMID: 6339545

Abstract

Quantitative bacteriology was performed on specimens collected by protected catheter fiberoptic bronchoscopy from 172 patients. Of the patients who had pneumonia, 75 of 78 (96%) had one or more species present at greater than or equal to 10(3) CFU/ml, whereas 2 of 35 (6%) control patients had organisms present in that quantity. In addition, 66% of the control specimens yielded no isolates by this technique. All of the 11 patients with bronchitis had greater than or equal to 10(3) CFU/ml. Quantitative bacteriology revealed high levels of colonization in patients without infection and endobronchial structural disease. The data suggest that bacterial counts of greater than or equal to 10(3) CFU/ml in suspended secretions collected with a protected catheter brush were diagnostic of the bacteriological etiology of lower respiratory tract infections in patients without endobronchial structural abnormalities.

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Selected References

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