Improved laboratory safety by decontamination of unstained sputum smears for acid-fast microscopy

• Autor(a) principal: Giacomelli, LRB
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Helbel, C., Ogassawara, RLN, Barreto, AMW, Martins, F. M., Cardoso, C. L., Leite, CQF
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.43.8.4245-4248.2005; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/7530

Tubercle bacilli may survive in unstained heat-fixed sputum smears and may be an infection risk to laboratory staff. We compared the effectiveness of 1% and 5% sodium hypochlorite, 5% phenol, 2% glutaraldehyde, and 3.7% formalin in killing Mycobacterium tuberculosis present in smears prepared from 51 sputum samples. The smears were decontaminated by the tube and slide techniques. Phenol at 5%, glutaraldehyde at 2%, and buffered formalin at 3.7% for 1 min (tube technique) or for 10 min (slide technique) were effective in decontaminating sputum smears and preserved cell morphology and quantitative acid-fast microscopy results.