Abstract

An early detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the sputum was attempted by slide culture method instead of the ordinary culture media and the authors obtained the following results. The elongation of bacterial cells was only observed on the slide of the first day culture. There was increases of the number of the elongated cells on the third day culture. There were many groups which composed of the elongated cells of mycobacteria containing granules in the cells on the slide of the fifth day culture. On the seventy day culture the microcolony formation of the elongated cells was prominent. Also the elongated cells, the cells with granules and the divided cells were seen scattered. The rate of the culture positivity from 102 sputums was 9.8% on the Ogawa's media and 10.8% on the Kirchner's media. The rate of positivity of slide culture method was the same as the culture on the Kirchner media. The rate of positivity by the direct smear staining of the sputum was 9.8%. The microscopically positive 2 cases were negative in the cultures while the microscopically negative 3 cases were positive in the culture. The slide culture method was thought to be useful for the early detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the sputum.