Contribution of amoebic coculture to recovery of Legionella isolates from respiratory samples: Prospective analysis over a period of 32 months

Abstract

We evaluated the contribution of amoebic coculture to the recovery of Legionella spp. from 379 respiratory samples. The sensitivity of axenic culture was 42.1%. The combination of axenic culture with amoebic coculture increased the Legionella isolation rate to 47.1%. Amoebic coculture was particularly efficient in isolating Legionella spp. from respiratory samples contaminated with oropharyngeal flora. Copyright © 2012, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.