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Setting: Tuberculosis clinic of a chest disease and chest surgery education and research hospital. Objective: Determination of the reliability of acid-fast stain and culture of gastric aspiration in diagnosis of patients who cannot expectorate sputum and in smear-negative patients.
Design: 1115 patients were hospitalized for pulmonary tuberculosis between 1 January 1995 and 31 December 2003. From these patients, results of gastric aspiration of 55 patients who had clinical and radiological evidence of pulmonary tuberculosis without sputum complaint and 60 smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis cases were evaluated retrospectively from the laboratory records.
Results: Of 55 patients with no sputum, gastric aspiration smears were positive in 17 (30.9%) and gastric aspiration cultures were positive in 24 (43.6%) patients. Twenty-nine (52.7%) patients had either positive acid-fast stain or culture. Of the 60 smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis patients, gastric aspiration smears were positive for acid-fast bacilli in 14 (23.3%) and gastric aspiration cultures were positive in 10 (16.7%) patients. Nineteen (31.7%) of the gastric aspiration specimens were positive for acid-fast bacilli on either smear or culture.
Conclusion: Examination of gastric aspiration for acid-fast bacilli is an important diagnostic tool for smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis patients or in patients with the suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis who cannot expectorate sputum.