Recovery of Cryptococcus neoformans from sputum using new technics for the isolation of fungi from sputum.

Three sputum-digesting agents, N-acetyl-l-cytseine, dithiothreitol, and pancreatin-trypsin, were shown to be equally effective in allowing for the isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans from sputum samples in quantitative comparisons. By quantitative plating on bird-seed medium it was also shown the centrifugation after digestion concentrated C. neoformans into a platable sediment and, further, that the organisms, when present in concentrations as low as 10 yeasts per ml. of sputum, could be isolated with much higher frequencies than when no digestion-centrifugation procedure was used.