Moctopod
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Just a quick question. What test is more routinely used for the detection of mycobacteria in sputum samples? Is it Ziehl-Neelsen or auramine? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?
Thanks a lot,
Moc
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| bactitech
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All the labs I've worked for used the Auramine/Rhodamine fluorescent stain for direct and concentrated smears for specimens processed for AFB. They are much easier to read, once you are trained, and don't take nearly as long. The disadvantage is that you need to have a fluorescent microscope, which is expensive, and trained personnel to read the smears.
Once an acid fast organism grows, though, it is usually stained with the ZN technique (need to heat the slide) or the cold carbol-fuchsin technique, which produces red acid fast organisms on a blue background. Non-AFB stain blue. Methylene blue is the counterstain.
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Clinical Microbiology since 1974
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| Moctopod
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Thanks once again, Bacitech!
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