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Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1977 Mar;5(3):381–382. doi: 10.1128/jcm.5.3.381-382.1977

Gram stain evaluation of the quality of sputum specimens for mycobacterial culture.

C J Curione Jr, G S Kaneko, J L Voss, F Hesse, R F Smith
PMCID: PMC274603  PMID: 67123

Abstract

A group of 34 mycobacteria, consisting of 25 Mycobacterium tuberculosis and nine strains of three other species, was isolated from 400 expectorated sputum specimens submitted on 148 patients from county-wide sources. Eight strains (24% of the total) were isolated from specimens evaluated by Gram stain to be oropharyngeal fluids. The remaining 26 strains were isolated from ungradable specimens and those primarily of lower respiratory origin. It was concluded that the random examination of sputum by Gram stain to determine the specimen's quality for mycobacterial isolation is not necessary.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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