Tuberculosis: 7. Laboratory aspects of diagnosis

Table 1: Detection time and isolation rate for various media used to culture Mycobacterium tuberculosis* Culture medium Mean time to detection, d Isolation rate, %† BACTEC 460, 7H12 14 72 Loewenstein-Jensen 28 62 Middlebrook 7H10 21 56 Middlebrook 7H11 21 52 Loewenstein–Jensen + 7H10 + 7H11 26 89 *Source: Tubeculosis case finding and chemotherapy.5 †Isolation rates were calculated by dividing the number of isolates detected with a particular media by the total number of isolates detected with all 4 media.

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