[Treatment of the sputum with Soviet-produced chlorhexidine bigluconicum]

Soviet chlorhexedin bigluconicum (CHBG) was used for sputum treatment. 129 sputum specimens were investigated. Among them 45 specimens were bacterioscopically negative. The rest contained low, moderate and high numbers of tubercle bacilli. The sputum was incubated on the Löwenstein-Jensen and Finn-II media. Comparison of two treatment methods (with Na3PO4 and CHBG) showed that CHBG had a more sparing effect on tubercle bacilli. The most marked effect was observed with incubation of oligobacillar materials and materials containing low numbers of tubercle bacilli. The highest differences were revealed when the materials were incubated on the Löwenstein-Jensen medium. It was shown that isolation of the cultures from oligobacillar materials increased by 4-14.3 per cent. The growth intensity and rate were higher. The majority of the cultures grew in 3-4 weeks whereas with using Na3PO4 part of the cultures grew during the period between the 6th and the 8th weeks. When the number of tubercle bacilli was high irrespective of the treatment procedure the number of the grown cultures was the same. The germination level was low and amounted to 3.9 per cent after treatment with Na3PO4 and to 2.3 per cent after treatment with CHBG. The method using CHBG is simple, economic and valuable in laboratory practice.