Recovery of pathogenic fungi from clinical specimens submitted for mycobacteriological culture

A total of 332 major pathogenic fungi were isolated from specimens cultured onto both fungal culture media and media used for culturing mycobacteria from January 1968 to June 1975. Only 72 (21.7%) fungi were recovered on media used for culturing mycobacteria. The effect of sodium hydroxide treatment was evaluated and shown to be detrimental to the recovery of fungi. It is recommended that clinical laboratories not rely on mycobacteriological cultures to recover fungal pathogens.