BACTERIOLOGY <<Back
 
 
143
AN INTER LABORATORY COMPARISON
N Naganathan: NTI Newsletter 1974, 11, 27-28.

The National Tuberculosis Institute (NTI), Bangalore was established in 1959 and its bacteriological laboratory started functioning from 1961. For the first few years WHO Experts were involved in the establishment and running of the laboratory but since many years the laboratory is being run only by the national staff.

The laboratory has been involved in research and training since its inception. In order to compare the standard of the various tests done in the NTI laboratory with that of a similar laboratory having some standing in tuberculosis research, a series of comparison studies were done between NTI and the laboratory of the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras. The results were similar except for variations within normal limits. Besides, some cultures isolated in NTI laboratory were sent to the tuberculosis laboratory of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta (Georgia) U.S.A. for purpose of an inter-laboratory comparison. Forty seven cultures were sent to CDC, of which 38 were M.tuberculosis, 1 rapid grower, 1 H37 RV, 3 M.avium, 2 M.bovis, 1 B.C.G and 1 M.phlei. But for some minor variations in a few biochemical tests, the species classification compared well between the two laboratories. Taking all the results into account and making some allowance for unavoidable variations, it was observed that the standard of bacteriological investigations were similar between all the three laboratories.

KEY WORDS: LABORATORY, TUBERCLE BACILLI, SPECIES.
 
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