title: [Prolonged culture in a humid chamber increases the yields of pathogenic bacteria from the respiratory tract samples of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis].
abstract: Current standards of care for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients lack unequivocal recommendations concerning the duration of primary culture of bacteriological samples. With the exception of Burkholderia cepacia (5 days), the minimum recommended duration of primary culture varies between 48 and 72 hours. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of an extended 10-day period of primary culture in a humid chamber in samples acquired from the respiratory tract of patients suffering from CF. Compared to standard culture, prolonged culture in a humid chamber yielded 1.85 times more isolates of pathogenic species in pharyngeal swabs (76 versus 41 isolates) and 1.4 times more isolates in sputum samples (116 versus 82), but only 1.14 times more isolates in nasal swabs (25 versus 22). Prolonged culture was most beneficial for Achromobacter spp. (6 versus 0), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (16 versus 5) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (69 versus 49), whereas there was little or no benefit at all for Staphylococcus aureus (87 versus 73) and Moraxella catarrhalis (10 versus 10). Therefore, prolonged culture in a humid chamber may definitely be recommended for pharyngeal swabs and sputum samples obtained from patients suffering from CF to achieve the maximum recovery rate of pathogenic bacteria, in particular non-fermenting Gram-negative rods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, e-mail: rac@volny.cz.
authors.forename: Vladislav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Raclavský
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bardoň
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: PetruŽelová
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Procházková
authors.forename: Radko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Novotný
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Navrátilová
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zápalka
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jakubec
authors.forename: Jaromír
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zatloukal
authors.forename: František
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kopřiva
authors.forename: Vítězslav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kolek
mesh_terms: D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria; D006801:Humans; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology; D013997:Time Factors