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Updated: Apr 27, 2026
A Microscopic Phenotypic Assay for the Quantification of Intracellular Mycobacteria Adapted for High-throughput/High-content Screening
Published on: January 17, 2014
Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis growth by direct microscopic observation has a lower cost, higher sensitivity
S Olaru-Peter, C Grigoriu, L V Boiculese
1Department of Pulmonary Diseases, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Gr.T.Popa", Iasi, Romania, .
Background:
Culture is needed to confirm tuberculosis but results are generally obtained after several weeks.
Objectives:
We compared a direct microscopic observation technique for detection of mycobacterial culture positivity (MODS) with the classic solid and MB/BacT cultures in terms of sensitivity, contamination rate, speed and cost on 488 samples.
Results:
The sensitivity of the MODS technique--99,2% (162 positive samples) was higher than MB/BacT 78,4% (125 positive samples) and solid culture 69,6% (113 positive samples) P<0.005 for all comparisons. The median times to positivity were 21, 13.3 and 3 days on solid media, B/BacT and MODS respectively.
Conclusions:
The MODS technique is faster and more sensitive than both solid media and MB/BacT culture.
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