Definition of Acid-fast

1. Adjective. Not easily decolorized by acid solutions; pertains to micro-organisms (especially the tubercle bacillus that causes tuberculosis).

Similar to: Imperviable, Impervious

Definition of Acid-fast

1. Adjective. (context: histology of bacteria) Retaining stain when treated with an acidic solution. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Medical Definition of Acid-fast

1. A term used to denote bacteria that are not decolorised by acid-alcohol after having been stained with dyes such as basic fuchsin. The presence of acid fast organisms can be found in cultures that contain mycobacteria or some of the nocardiae. (12 Jul 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Acid-fast

aciculate
aciculated
aciculiform
aciculite
aciculum
aciculums
acid
acid-ash diet
acid-base balance
acid-base equilibrium
acid-base imbalance
acid-base indicator
acid-base indicators
acid-citrate-dextrose
acid-etched restoration
acid-fast (current term)
acid-fast stain
acid-forming
acid-free
acid-loving
acid-proof
acid-wash
acid agglutination
acid anhydride
acid anhydride hydrolases
acid anhydrides
acid carboxypeptidase
acid cholesterol ester synthetase
acid deoxyribonuclease

Literary usage of Acid-fast

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1912)
"Clegg in 1909 announced his success in the cultivation of an acid-fast bacillus ... He subsequently obtained pure cultures of acid-fast organisms on the ..."

2. The Journal of Infectious Diseases by Infectious Diseases Society of America, John Rockefeller McCormick Memorial Fund, John McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases (1915)
"Day, AA, and Walker, AW The metabolism of saprophytic human in acid-fast bacteria, I, 15, 417. Walker, AW, and Day, AA A comparison of the curves of ..."

3. Pathogenic microorganisms by William Hallock Park (1920)
"No acid-fast organism was grown from leprous lesions until Clegg reported, in 1908, that he had been able to cultivate an acid-fast bacillus by growing it ..."

4. Practical Bacteriology, Blood Work and Animal Parasitology: Including by Edward Rhodes Stitt (1916)
"At any rate material containing only these Gram-positive granules and no acid-fast rods may when injected into animals give rise to tuberculosis and ..."

5. Household Bacteriology for Students in Domestic Sciences by Estelle Denis Buchanan, Robert Earle Buchanan (1913)
"CHAPTER XL acid-fast OR TUBERCULOSIS GROUP THE principal organisms belonging ... The name acid-fast (or acid-proof] refers to the fact that these organisms ..."

6. A Treatise on diseases of the skin for advanced students and practitioners by Henry Weightman Stelwagon (1916)
"171) states that in investigations in 75 lepers—58 of the nodular type, 6 of the mixed type, and n of the anesthetic type—he found acid-fast bacilli, ..."

7. Laboratory Manual in General Microbiology by Dept. of Bacteriology and Public Health, Michigan, Michigan Agricultural College, Michigan State University, East Lansing Agricultural College, Dept. of Bacteriology and Hygiene (1916)
"METHOD OF STAINING TUBERCLE AND OTHER acid-fast BACTERIA acid-fast bacteria are so ... The property which some bacteria possess of being I acid-fast is ..."

8. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences by Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (U.S.) (1908)
"A tube removed each day and examined showed by Gram's stain slender rods and granules on the third day, but no acid- fast organisms until the sixth. ..."

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