Liquid vs. Solid Culture for Ruling Out Active Tuberculosis

In a study involving 435 HIV-infected patients in Peru, a liquid culture tool consistently detected Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum samples within 21 days.

Treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is critical to the control of the TB epidemic among HIV-infected persons in the developing world. However, before such treatment begins, active TB must be ruled out. (Isoniazid monotherapy, although appropriate for LTBI, is ineffective for active TB and can promote drug resistance.) Use of Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture to grow M. tuberculosis and thus determine the presence of active disease requires about 4 weeks. A low-cost liquid culture tool — the microscopic observational drug-susceptibility (MODS) assay — has been developed for resource-limited settings and is definitively negative by 21 days.

To compare MODS with conventional methods, researchers studied 435 HIV-infected patients in L…

Reviewing Author

Neil M. Ampel, MD

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Editorial BoardsUpToDate

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesCoccidioidomycosis Study Group (Past President, Secretary, Treasurer)

Neil M. Ampel, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsUpToDate

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesCoccidioidomycosis Study Group (Past President, Secretary, Treasurer)

Liquid vs. Solid Culture for Ruling Out Active Tuberculosis

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Reviewing Author