Background. Culture is still the gold standard for the detection of genital mycoplasma which could cause urogenital infections in humans. Mycoplasma IST2 is a commercial kit widely used for the detection of M. hominis and Ureaplasma species. Its accuracy was partially impaired because clinical specimens are usually mixed with purulent or transparent mucus. We aimed to solve this problem through sample homogenization by N-acetylcysteine (NAC) treatment. Methods. Twenty-two endocervical swab samples were collected from 22 female patients with suspected mycoplasma infection, while 11 of these specimens were with purulent or transparent mucus. Mycoplasma IST2 testing kit was used for mycoplasma culture and AST for the control group and NAC-treated group. Results. Genital mycoplasma was detected in 15 of 22 samples for both groups. The colony number in 6 out of 11 purulent specimens (54.5%) was more than 10⁴ CFU/ml of genital mycoplasma for the NAC-treated group, while only one of 11 (9.1%) for the control group. For the nonpurulent specimens, no significant difference had been found in colony counting of genital mycoplasma between the control group and NAC-treated group (). The results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing for the NAC-treated group were highly similar to those for the control group. Conclusions. Our results demonstrate that NAC is helpful in sample homogenization and NAC treatment can improve the detection efficiency of mycoplasma with Mycoplasma IST2 testing.

中文翻译：

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一项观察性研究：N-乙酰半胱氨酸是否有助于通过样品均质化提高支原体 IST2 检测的性能？

背景。培养仍然是检测可能导致人类泌尿生殖道感染的生殖器支原体的金标准。Mycoplasma IST2 是一种商业试剂盒，广泛用于检测人支原体和脲原体物种。由于临床标本通常混有脓性或透明粘液，因此其准确性部分受损。我们旨在通过N-乙酰半胱氨酸 (NAC) 处理的样品均质化来解决这个问题。方法. 从 22 名疑似支原体感染的女性患者身上采集了 22 份宫颈拭子样本，其中 11 份样本为脓性或透明粘液。支原体IST2检测试剂盒用于支原体培养和AST用于对照组和NAC处理组。结果。两组的 22 个样本中有 15 个检测到生殖器支原体。NAC处理组11个脓性标本中有6个（54.5%）的生殖支原体菌落数超过10 ⁴  CFU/ml，而对照组只有11个（9.1%）。对于非化脓标本，对照组和NAC处理组生殖器支原体菌落计数无显着差异（）。NAC治疗组的抗菌药物敏感性试验结果与对照组高度相似。结论。我们的结果表明，NAC 有助于样品均质化，NAC 处理可以提高支原体 IST2 检测的支原体检测效率。