Rahman M
Postgrad Med J. 1979 Sep;55(646):553-5. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.55.646.553.
A retrospective study of laboratory reports of sputums examined in the first 3 months of 1977 and of 1978 showed some interesting findings, which were similar in these 2 years. Analysis of the findings demonstrated that information from a proportion of sputum cultures were not helpful to the clinicians. Probable causes of such unhelpful results and some ways to overcome these problems were discussed, along with reviews of relevant literature. A conclusion drawn at the end of the discussion was that, under present circumstances, it was not expected that sputum cultures would produce totally reliable aetiological agents, unless attempts were made to obtain a better quality of specimen, e.g. those obtained by transtracheal or bronchoscopic aspirations.
一项对1977年和1978年前3个月痰液检查实验室报告的回顾性研究显示了一些有趣的发现，这两年的情况相似。对这些发现的分析表明，一部分痰培养结果对临床医生并无帮助。讨论了出现此类无用结果的可能原因以及克服这些问题的一些方法，并对相关文献进行了综述。讨论结束时得出的结论是，在目前情况下，除非努力获取质量更好的标本，如经气管或支气管抽吸获得的标本，否则预计痰培养无法提供完全可靠的病原体。
