title: Evaluation of nutrient agar for the culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using the microcolony detection method.
abstract: We evaluated nutrient agar using the microcolony detection method for the recovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on 37 acid-fast bacilli (AFB) positive sputum specimens, and compared it with conventional Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium. Nutrient agar detected 35 isolates compared  to 34 on LJ medium. The mean time to detection of mycobacteria on nutrient agar and LJ medium was respectively 9.6 and 21.4 days. The contamination rate on nutrient agar and LJ medium was respectively 5.4% and 2.7%. Nutrient agar detects M. tuberculosis more rapidly than LJ medium,  and could be an economical, rapid culture method in resource-poor settings, provided our findings are confirmed by further studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Combined Military Hospital, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. luqmansatti@hotmail.com
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Satti
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Faiz
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D003470:Culture Media; D046508:Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D000362:Agar