The Research Institute for Diagnosis and Treatment of Early Lung Cancer (RIDTELC) Lung Study was initiated to determine whether lung cancer screening by automated sputum cytometry combined with conventional sputum cytology and auto-fluorescence in addition to white light bronchoscopy could enhance the detection rate of early lung cancer. The present study analyses the initial findings to evalua...

The presence of asbestos bodies (ABs) in sputum specimens of individuals with occupational asbestos exposure has been well-documented. The aim of this study was to determine their clinical relevance in comparison to the concentration of AB in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and lung tissue. Subjects were included following a well-documented exposure of asbestos history (n = 93) or BAL fluid analys...

INTRODUCTION Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies have been considered very specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Some studies have shown that these antibodies can be positive in infectious diseases like TB, HIV, etc. METHODS Fifty patients of tuberculosis both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary were enrolled in the study from inpatient and outpatient departments from May 2012...

BACKGROUND The usefulness of sputum culture in guiding microbiological diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia is controversial. We evaluate and assess it using the Patients Outcome Research Team (PORT) predictive scoring system. METHODS A cohort of 1669 patients with community-acquired pneumonia was studied. Before administering antibiotic therapy, sputum was collected and its quality eval...

SETTING Nairobi City Council Chest Clinic, Nairobi, Kenya. OBJECTIVE To determine if under-reading of sputum smears is a contributing factor in the disproportionate increase in smear-negative tuberculosis in Nairobi, Kenya. METHODOLOGY Between October 1997 and November 1998, patients fulfilling the local programme definition of smear-negative presumed pulmonary tuberculosis were enrolled in...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the sensitivity of acid-fast sputum smears in the diagnosis of pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). DESIGN Retrospective chart and radiographic film review. SETTING Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New York City. PATIENTS All patients with positive sputum cultures for MTB during 1989 to 1991, including 100 with HIV, and 76 without HIV infection...

BACKGROUND In the era of Direct Observation Treatment (DOT) for tuberculosis, clinicians need to focus on high-risk groups. We present sputum conversion rate at one and two months following DOT and its predictors in Oman. STUDY DESIGN Hospital-based clinical intervention type of case series. METHODS Chest physicians in a referral hospital examined sputum-positive cases of tuberculosis betwe...

From January 1976 to December 1981 mycobacteria were recovered for the first time from the respiratory tract of 179 patients. Twenty-three patients had undergone fibreoptic bronchoscopy during initial investigation after three or more expectorated sputum specimens were negative for acid-fast bacilli. Three of these patients had nodular lesions on the chest radiograph and the diagnosis of mycoba...

BACKGROUND Light-emitting diode fluorescence microscopy (LED-FM) has been shown to be more sensitive than conventional bright field microscopy using Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stain in detecting sputum smear positive tuberculosis in controlled laboratory conditions. In 2012, Auramine O staining based LED-FM replaced conventional ZN microscopy in 200 designated microscopy centres (DMC) of medical colleg...