A Study of the Isolation of Tubercle Bacilli from the Patient's Urine with Genitourinary Tuberculosis by the Inoculation into the Korean Chipmunks

Choi, Hyung Ki; Lew, Joon; Wang, Chong Soon

Abstract

The detection of the tubercle bacilli is absolutely necessary to make definite diagnosis of patients with genitourinary tuberculosis. Recently it has been reported that the detection rate of tubercle bacilli from the patient's urine is decreasing because of abuse of the anti-tuberculous drugs and the resistance developed in the experimental animals such as mouse and guinea pig (Marks, 1972). Therefore the necessity of the development of better diagnostic methods has been mandatory. Recently it was reported that the Korean chipmunks(Tamias sibiricus asiaticus. Gmelin) are highly susceptible to tubercle bacilli (Chang et al., 1971). The specific objection of this study is to pursue the possibility of using the chipmunks for the early diagnosis of genitourinary tuberculosis. Twenty-four hour urines of 34 patients with suspected genitourinary tuberculosis were tested for tubercle bacilli with smear, culture, and inoculation ink chipmunks and mice intraperitoneally. The results are briefly summarized as follows: 1. 18 cases out of 34 patients with suspected genitourinary tuberculosis were confirmed to be positive by any means of stained smear, culture and animal inoculation. Of 18 proved genitourinary tuberculosis. 12 cases were confirmed by smear, culture and mouse inoculation, and on the other hand. 14 cases by chipmunks inoculation. 2. In the group of chipmunks inoculation, 8 cases were found to be positive on the 10th day and 14 cages on the 20th day. 3. These findings suggest that the period required for the detection of tubercle bacilli was shorter and the positive rate was higher than that of other animals and other methods. For the clinical applications of the Korean chipmunks as a diagnostic tools, further effort is considered to be necessary.