Improved, low-cost selective culture medium for Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans

Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans is considered to be one of the major o ral putative pathogens, especially in cases of juvenile periodontitis, This microorganism requires nutritionally complex media for growth, and therefo re the media for its primary isolation usually include blood agar or serum in their base, In this study we present a new medium, Dentaid-1, which impr oves the detection of A. actinomycetemcomitans in periodontal samples. In i ts composition, blood and serum have been omitted, hence reducing its cost and making it a more restrictive medium against the growth of other microor ganisms with high nutritional requirements. The growth yields of pure cultu res of the bacteria on Dentaid-1 were comparable to those on nonselective b lood agar. Moreover, clinical efficacy was evaluated in subgingival samples from 77 subjects with adult periodontitis. Dentaid-1 detected A. actinomyc etemcomitans in 24 subjects, while a previously described tryptic soy-serum -bacitracin-vancomycin agar detected the microorganism in only 19 subjects (79.1%), Dentaid-1 is a low-cost, noninhibitory formula for the improved di agnosis and monitoring of patients subgingivally infected by this important oral putative pathogen.