COMBINED DRUG TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS. IV. BACTERIOLOGIC STUDIES ON THE SPUTUM AND RESECTED PULMONARY LESIONS OF TUBERCULOUS PATIENTS

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Abstract
Comparison of the preoperative and postoperative sputum studies, including drug-susceptibility testing, with similar bacteriologic studies carried out on the specimens of pulmonary tissue removed at surgery from 220 tuberculous patients revealed that 93% of the results were in agreement: The sputum and the surgical specimens were either both negative on culture or both positive on culture. Discrepancy between the results of drug-susceptibility studies performed on the preoperative sputa and on the resected tissue specimens was found in only 2 of 96 patients so studied. There was a high degree of correlation (95%) between catalase activity of organisms recovered from preoperative sputa and the catalase activity of tubercle bacilli recovered on culture of resected specimens. Finally, the high incidence of bacteriologically negative results on surgically resected specimens from sputum-negative patients given original high dosage combined-drug treatment with isoniazid and streptomycin corroborates other evidence for the effectiveness of this approach to chemotherapy of pulmonary tuberculosis.