Processing sputum specimen without biosafety cabinet; how safe are we?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7439/ijbr.v9i7.4808Keywords:
Benign, malignant, mesenchymal hamartoma, tumor.Abstract
Background : Sputum specimen is a commonly submitted specimen in routine diagnostics. Patient presenting with signs and symptoms of respiratory tract infection in many cases may have pulmonary tuberculosis as a differential diagnosis owing to its widespread prevalence and vague presentation. When sputum specimens of such patients are submitted for Acid Fast Staining (AFB), primary smear preparation is done in biosafety cabinet, but sputum specimen of the same patient when submitted for Gram staining and culture sensitivity, in our and many other setups, is not processed in biosafety cabinet. Objectives : This study aims to show that the sputum specimens we process without biosafety cabinet may contain tubercle bacilli. Methods : Laboratory data of total sputum specimens submitted from 14th April 2013 to 13th April 2014 for microscopy and culture sensitivity and those submitted for AFB were collected retrospectively. Head to head comparison was done to reveal the specimen from same patient submitted simultaneously for microscopy and culture in one hand and for AFB on other. Results : A total of 1235 sputum specimens were submitted for microscopy and culture in that period. Among them 307 were simultaneously submitted for AFB. Out of 307 sputum specimens, in 29 specimens AFB were found to be present in various loads, ranging from few number of AFB seen to a grade of 3+ in 16 of the specimens. Conclusion : This study shows that every sputum specimen should be processed under biosafety cabinet considering the likeliness of presence of tubercle bacilli imposing threat to laboratory workers.Downloads
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