Respiratory bacterial culture from two sequential bronchoalveolar lavages of the same lobe in children with chronic cough.

Respiratory bacterial culture from two sequential bronchoalveolar lavages of the same lobe in children with chronic cough. J Med Microbiol. 2015 Sep 22; Authors: Hare KM, Marsh RL, Smith-Vaughan HC, Bauert P, Chang AB Abstract Identification of bacteria causing lower airway infections is important to determine appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Flexible bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is used to obtain lower airway specimens in young children. The first lavage (lavage-1) is typically used for bacterial culture. However, no studies in children have compared the detection of cultivable bacteria from sequential lavages of the same lobe. BAL fluid was collected from two sequential lavages of the same lobe in 79 children enrolled in our prospective studies of chronic cough. The respiratory bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Staphylococcus aureus and H. parainfluenzae were isolated and identified using standard published methods. H. influenzae was differentiated from H. haemolyticus using PCR assays. Lower airway infection was defined as ≥104 cfu/mL BAL fluid. We compared cultivable bacteria from lavage-1 to the second lavage (lavage-2) using the kappa statistic. Lower airway infections by any pathogen were detected in 46% of first lavages and 39% of second lavages. Detection was similar in both lavages for all pathogens; the kappa statistic was 0.7-0.8 for all bacteria except...
Source: Journal of Medical Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: J Med Microbiol Source Type: research