A modified acid-fast staining method was developed for rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its L forms, wherein carbol fuchsin and dioxogen were mixed into the sputum smear. With this method, the dyeing time is shortened and heating is not required. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive rate, and diagnostic efficiency of the new method were compared to those obtained by PCR using 50 clinical samples. Further, 468 clinical samples were analyzed using the new method, the modified intensified Kinyoun (IK) acid-fast staining method, and the traditional Ziehl-Neelsen acid-fast staining method. Differences among the positive detection rates of the three methods were analyzed using Student's t-test, and no significant differences were found between the new method and the modified IK acid-fast staining method, while the rates of both these methods were higher than that of the traditional acid-fast staining method. Additionally, the dyeing time in the new method was markedly less than that in the modified IK acid-fast staining method (5 min and 24 h, respectively).
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