TABLE 4.
Turnaround time of M. tuberculosis recovery from 77 culture-positive specimens in three liquid medium systems
| System (GI) | Total no. of positive culturesa | No. of days to a positive culture
|
% of cultures with growth detected after the following no. of days:
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | Range | ≤7 | 8–14 | 15–21 | ≥22 | ||
| BACTEC (>10) | 71 (92.2) | 12.0 | 3–23 | 15.5 | 50.7 | 31.0 | 2.8 |
| BACTEC (≥500) | 71 (92.2) | 15.0 | 8–26 | 1.4 | 49.3 | 40.9 | 8.4 |
| MB Redox tube | 62 (80.5) | 16.0 | 8–28 | 1.6 | 41.9 | 38.7 | 17.7 |
| MGIT | 49 (63.6) | 17.4 | 8–42 | 0 | 40.8 | 36.7 | 22.5 |
a
Values in parentheses are percentages.