Article,
Cough-generated aerosols of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: a new method to study infectiousness
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 169 (5): 604--9 (March 2004)PMID: 14656754.
DOI: 10.1164/rccm.200308-1101OC
Abstract
The concentration and size distribution of infectious aerosols produced by patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) has never been directly measured. We aimed to assess the feasibility of a method that we developed to collect and quantify culturable cough-generated aerosols of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Subjects were recruited from a referral hospital and most had multidrug-resistant TB. They coughed into a chamber containing microbial air samplers while cough frequency was measured during two 5-minute sessions. Cough-generated aerosol cultures were positive in 4 of 16 subjects (25\%) with smear-positive pulmonary TB. There was a rapid decrease in the cough-generated aerosol cultures within the first 3 weeks of effective treatment. Culture-positive cough aerosols were associated with lack of treatment during the previous week (p = 0.007), and there was a trend in the association with cough frequency (p = 0.08). The size distributions of these aerosols were variable, but most particle sizes were in the respirable range. Quantification of viable cough-generated aerosols is feasible and offers a new approach to study infectiousness and transmission of M. tuberculosis and other airborne pathogens.
Tags
- aerosols,
- air
- and
- bacterial,
- bias,
- cough,
- environmental
- epidemiology,
- feasibility
- female,
- fingerprinting,
- humans,
- male,
- microbiology,
- molecular,
- monitoring,
- mycobacterium
- of
- particle
- pulmonary
- reproducibility
- results,
- selection
- sensitivity
- size,
- specificity,
- sputum,
- studies,
- tuberculosis,
- {dna,}
- {dna}
- {multidrug-resistant,}
