Background: The usefulness of an induced sputum in the identification of causative bacteria of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in young children is controversial. This study aimed to investigate the significance of the implementation of an induced sputum culture among children with CAP and the impact of prior use of antimicrobial agents on the quality of the sample and result of the culture.Methods: This prospective study included 96 children hospitalized for acute bacterial CAP whose sputum samples were collected by suctioning from the hypopharynx through the nose. The samples were evaluated for their quality using Geckler classification, and the result of this conventional culture method was compared to that of a clone library analysis of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequence for each sample.Results: The concordance between bacteria isolated by sputum culture and the most predom-inant bacteria identified by a clonal library analysis was significantly higher in the samples judged as a good quality (Geckler 5, 90%) than in others (70%). The rate of good-quality sputum sample was significantly higher in samples collected from patients without prior antimicrobial therapy (70%) than in those from patients with it (41%). The concordance between the two methods was significantly higher in the former (88%) than in the latter population (71%).
[1]Univ Occupat & Environm Hlth, Sch Med, Dept Pediat, Kitakyushu, Japan.
[2]Kitakyushu Gen Hosp, Dept Pediat, Kitakyushu, Japan.
[3]Univ Occupat & Environm Hlth, Sch Med, Dept Pediat, 1-1 Isei Gaoka,Yahatanishi Ku, Kitakyushu 8078555, Japan.
(8.0+极速模式)