Value of the chlorhexidine decontamination method for recovery of nontuberculous mycobacteria from sputum samples of patients with cystic fibrosis.

摘要

The chlorhexidine method was compared to the N-acetyl-l-cysteine-NaOH-oxalic acid decontamination method currently recommended for the recovery of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) from patients with cystic fibrosis. Sputum samples (n = 827) treated with chlorhexidine yielded twice as many NTM-positive cultures as those treated by the reference method (54 6.50 versus 27 3.25; P < 0.0001) despite a higher contamination rate (20 versus 14.2; P = 0.0017).