Comparison of mycobacterial cultures on agar and Lowenstein medium.

In a comparison of Lowenstein's medium with two agar media, 7H10 without and with the addition of Triton WR 1339, 4,100 sputa were planted on all three, yielding 803 (19.6%) positive cultures. The addition of Triton WR 1339 to the 7H10 medium made it possible to observe the cord formation directly on the isolation plates and did not alter, in any respect, the results obtained with the basic 7H10 medium. The agar media produced much earlier and more positive cultures than Lowenstein's medium. A greater number of cultures showed drug resistance on Lowenstein's medium as compared with the agar media.