Original article Hae-Gyeong Baek1, Hyun-Mi Ko2, Myung-Hee Lee1 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kwangju Christian Hospital, Gwangju, 2Dental Science Research Institute, Department of Oral Anatomy, School of Dentistry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea. Corresponding to Myung-Hee Lee, E-mail: purunee0820@naver.com Ann Clin Microbiol 2020;23(4):201-210. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2020.23.4.5Received on 8 October 2020, Revised on 3 November 2020, Accepted on 2 December 2020, Published on 20 December 2020.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Background: Respiratory specimens subjected to mycobacterial detection were initially pre-treated with N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide (NALC-NaOH) to remove the mucus and normal flora. Next, they were washed and neutralized with phosphate-buffered solution (PBS). The effectiveness of distilled water (DW) compared to PBS as a washing neutralizer during identification of mycobacteria was evaluated in this study. Methods: We analyzed the results of mycobacterial test conducted at a general hospital in Gwangju from October 2016 to September 2018. PBS and DW were used as a

PDF Original article Annals of Clinical Microbiology (Ann Clin Microbiol) 2020 December, Volume 23, Issue 4, pages 201-210. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2020.23.4.5 Hae-Gyeong Baek1, Hyun-Mi Ko2, Myung-Hee Lee11Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kwangju Christian Hospital, Gwangju, 2Dental Science Research Institute, Department of Oral Anatomy, School of Dentistry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea. Abstract Background: Respiratory specimens subjected to mycobacterial detection were initially pretreated with N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide (NALC-NaOH) to remove the mucus and normal flora. Next, they were washed and neutralized with phosphate-buffered solution (PBS). The effectiveness of distilled water (DW) compared to PBS as a washing neutralizer during identification of mycobacteria was evaluated in this study. Methods: We analyzed the results of mycobacterial test conducted at a general hospital in Gwangju from October 2016 to September 2018. PBS and DW were used as a respiratory sample washing agent for one year each. Results: The positive culture rate for the culture of mycobacteria was 12.7%