The effect of the culture filtrate Gemella haemolysans in enhancing mycobacterial growth has been previously demonstrated. In the present studies, an attempt was made to confirm whether the addition of the filtrate into the medium would be an effective method to promote the rapid detection of mycobacteria in sputum specimens of patients.
One-hundred and one sputum specimens pretreated with NaOH were inoculated with various media (Dubos, Dubos-agar, 1% Ogawa, Kudo PD, and Middlebrook 7H9) supplemented with the culture filtrate of Gemella haemolysans grown in blood-BHI or blood-HEM at the dilutions of 1/32 or 1/64. Addition of the filtrate reduced the amount of time required to detect mycobacterial growth (Mycobacterium tuberculosis, M. avium complex, and M. kansassi) by an average of 60-70%. The media containing the filtrate formed significantly larger numbers of colonies compared with the control media, and those colonies inoculated developed more rapidly in size.
The findings clearly indicated that the culture filtrate promotes the effective growth of mycobacteria which cannot or only slowly grows in ordinary media. Also indicate d was that the addition of the culture filtrate of Gemella haemolysans into media provides as a useful tool to allow the rapid diagnosis of mycobacterial diseases.
