Diagnosis of anaerobic infections by gas-liquid chromatography.

Anaerobic bacteriology of clinical specimens is an expensive and time-consuming operation. In the present investigation it was shown that fatty acids produced by anaerobic bacteria may serve as bacterial markers in clinical material. Ten specimens of pus were analyzed by gas liquid chromatography and the results were compared with the bacteriological findings. Good correlations were found for the recovery of Bacteroides fragilis and the presence of isobutyric, butyric and succinic acids. It is concluded that direct gas-liquid chromatography of clinical specimens provides a rapid presumptive test for the presence of B. fragilis in anaerobic infections.