"Quantitative Culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Clinical Sputum Specimens and Dilution Endpoint of Its Detection by the Amplicor PCR Assay."

According to the authors' abstract of an article published in Journal of Clinical Microbiology, "The minimum number of Mycobacterium tuberculosis CFU detectable in clinical sputum specimens by the Amplicor PCR test was estimated by performing the test on duplicate samples of quantitatively cultured serial dilutions of sputum. Positive PCR test results were obtained for all samples that contained 42 CFU of M. tuberculosis. The detection limits of the PCR assay for decontaminated (N-acetyl-L-cysteine [NALC]-NaOH) and nondecontaminated (NALC only) specimens were equivalent, even though the number of CFU cultured from decontaminated samples was only 11 to 20% of the number...

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