ABSTRACT
The bacteria most often isolated from children suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF) are
Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Only a few studies attempted to identify
anaerobic bacteria in the lower respiratory tract of patients with CF (1,2). One study attempted
to report the number of anaerobes in selected sputum samples from patients with CF by
sputum liquefication (3). When cultured by a semiquantitative method, 26 (24%) of 109 sputum
specimens from 21 CF patients contained greater than 10
cfu of anaerobes/mL. Anaerobes
were isolated from repeated sputum specimens from five patients. The anaerobes most often
isolated were Prevotella disiens, pigmented Prevotella and Porphyromonas spp., and anaerobic
gram-positive cocci. Anaerobes were isolated more often from sputum liquefied by sonication
than from unliquefied sputum, suggesting that they were unlikely to be oropharyngeal
contaminants. Baran and Cordier (4) used transtracheal aspiration (TTA) in children with CF
and reported a good correlation between the organisms isolated in the sputum and TTA.
However, anaerobic culture techniques were not employed in this study.
