A cabinet for the detection of fluorescent bacterial cultures.

A cabinet for detecting the fluorescence of cultures on agar media is described. The use of fluorescence as a criterion for detection of Ps. pyocyanea is compared with that of the oxidase reaction. From a series of patients with burns, all colonies of Gram-negative bacilli which gave a positive oxidase reaction yielded fluorescent subcultures on 0.03% cetrimide agar; all fluorescent cultures on cetrimide agar gave a positive oxidase reaction, but a few mixed cultures which fluoresced on blood agar were not picked for oxidase tests because the colonies of Ps. pyocyanea were overgrown by other bacteria. Out of 1,812 swabs which yielded fluorescent subcultures on 0.03% cetrimide agar, 1,739 (96%) showed strong characteristic fluorescence on the initial blood agar plate culture.