We report a rare case of tuberculosis of oral cavity in a 3.5 year-old male who was referred to oral medicine department with a chief complaint of a painless lesion in the oral cavity. Incisional biopsy from the lesion margin depicted histological features of necrotizing granulomatous lesion. Ziehl-Neelsen staining for acid fast bacilli, interestingly, was negative.

In developing countries pulmonary tuberculosis is usually diagnosed by detecting acid-fast bacilli (AFB) in sputum using a Ziehl-Neelsen (Z-N) staining method. However, in the field the traditional method of staining is difficult to carry out. This study evaluates the efficiency of two cold staining methods, namely Gabbet’s and a modified two reagent cold staining method compared with the Z-N t...

During a one month period liver biopsy was carried out on eight patients with established acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and two suspected of having AIDS to evaluate raised liver enzymes or unexplained fever and weight loss. Each of the 10 patients were found to have hepatic granulomas. Appropriate staining techniques showed acid-fast bacilli in seven of the liver specimens. One spe...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the recently available Cobas Amplicor polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) in well-characterized clinical specimens and to compare the results with clinical classification, conventional culture and staining techniques. METHODS Three hundred and forty-four clinical specimens consecutively received for cultur...

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. Diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis is a global challenge making early treatment a mirage. In this study we investigated the stools of children for the presence of mycobacteria. METHODS Stool samples from children aged 3 days to 3 years who presented for postnatal immunization at a large university-based...

The lengthy treatment regimen for tuberculosis is necessary to eradicate a small sub-population of M. tuberculosis that persists in certain host locations under drug pressure. Limited information is available on persisting bacilli and their location within the lung during disease progression and after drug treatment. Here we provide a comprehensive histopathological and microscopic evaluation t...

Ten cultures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one of Mycobacterium kansasii (nonsignificant), and one of Mycobacterium phlei were submitted to starvation. As a result they lost first their acid fastness and then all other staining affinities but, in this chromophobic state, they survived for at least 2 years and, after that time, produced cultures of acid-fast bacilli when transferred onto nutrie...