The value of routinely culturing for tuberculosis during bronchoscopies in an intermediate tuberculosis-burden country.
OBJECTIVE
Many medical centers routinely culture bronchoscopy samples for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, even when tuberculosis is not strongly suspected. The value of this practice, however, is controversial. We evaluated the role of that procedure in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in an intermediate tuberculosis-burden country.


METHODS
A prospective, observational study was conducted in a tertiary referral center and included 733 consecutive patients who underwent bronchoscopy examination.


RESULTS
M. tuberculosis was isolated in 47 patients (6.4%). According to radiographic features, the rate of positive culture for M. tuberculosis was relatively high in patients with atelectasis (5/33, 15.2%) and those with pulmonary infiltrations of suspicious infections (26/183, 14.2%). M. tuberculosis was isolated even in patients with pulmonary masses (9/266, 3.4%) and those with pulmonary nodules (5/175, 2.9%). In 16/47 (34.0%) patients with positive cultures for M. tuberculosis, active pulmonary tuberculosis was not suspected at the time of bronchoscopy.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that routinely culturing for M. tuberculosis during bronchoscopy is still useful in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in an intermediate tuberculosis-burden country.
Kim
Myung Hoon
MH
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 135-710, Korea.
Suh
Gee Young
GY
Chung
Man Pyo
MP
Kim
Hojoong
H
Kwon
O Jung
OJ
Lee
Jang Ho
JH
Lee
Nam Yong
NY
Koh
Won-Jung
WJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000379:methods; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D001261:Pulmonary Atelectasis / Q000382:microbiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology