title: Recovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Löwenstein-Jensen media contaminated with other organisms.
abstract: Growth of contaminating organisms along with Mycobacterium tuberculosis on Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium is common. However, there is no documented evidence on the decontamination procedure adopted in mycobacteriology laboratories to recover M. tuberculosis from the  contaminants grown on LJ medium. At the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, of 1048 LJ slopes with M. tuberculosis received from intermediate reference laboratories, 98 (9%) were contaminated. Of these, 87 (89%) M. tuberculosis cultures were retrieved after decontamination  with 1% cetrimide. The use of cetrimide as a decontaminating agent to retrieve M. tuberculosis cultures grown with contaminants is documented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chetput, Chennai, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nagarajan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anbarasu
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Selvakumar
mesh_terms: D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000379:methods; D003470:Culture Media; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media