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. 2002 Sep;40(9):3482-4.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.40.9.3482-3484.2002.

Are three sputum acid-fast bacillus smears necessary for discontinuing tuberculosis isolation?

Philip Mathew  1 , Yen-Hong Kuo, Bindu Vazirani, Robert H K Eng, Melvin P Weinstein
Affiliations

Are three sputum acid-fast bacillus smears necessary for discontinuing tuberculosis isolation?

Philip Mathew et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2002 Sep.

Abstract

To evaluate the efficacy of three sputum acid-fast bacillus (AFB) smears to rule out pulmonary tuberculosis, sputum AFB smear and culture results were analyzed at two university-affiliated teaching hospitals. The negative predictive value of the smear increased by only 0.2% on days 2 and 3 each, indicating that in low-prevalence populations, there is limited value in requiring three negative sputum AFB smears before discontinuing tuberculosis isolation.

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