Evaluation of the Kudoh swab method for the culturing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in rural areas.

Objective: To compare the simple, swab 'Kudoh method' for culturing Myobacterium tuberculosis from sputum samples, to the standard Petroff digestion-decontamination procedure. The Kudoh method, which requires no centrifugation and takes only 4-5 min per sample, was also evaluated for its performance in a rural setting.

Methods: Two hospital laboratories in Caracas, Venezuela processed 314 sputum samples, in parallel, with both methods.