Specimen Management/Collection

• When to collect the specimen, what phase of the infection?

  Acute or early phase
• When to collect the specimen if its for viral infection

  within 2-day
• Label the specimen accurately with the specific anatomic site and the patient information, including:


  patient's name

  unique identification number

  date and time of the collection
• Specimens for microbiology cultures should be collected in

  sterile containers
• All specimen container should be

  leak-proof
• The bag containing specimen should be marked with a

  biohazard label
• Swabs are appropriate for specimen from

  upper respiratory tract, external ear, genital tract
• Two types of swabs

  Regular fiber swab

  nylon flocked swab
• How many swab should be submitted (direct smear and culture)

  2
• Swab tips may contain cotton, dacron, rayon, or calcium alginate
• Swabs that are more preferred are

  Dacron, rayopn, calcuim aginate
• Cotton-tipped swab contains

  fatty acids
• Cotton-tipped swabs contained excessive fatty acids which are inhibitory and toxic to what bacterias?

  Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Bordetella pertussis
• To counteract fatty acids, _ can be added to absorb the fatty acid [resent in the specimen

  charcoal
• What swabs are not recommended for viral collection (SARS-CoV-2)

  Calcium alginate and wooden shafts
• In viral collection, the swab that should be use

  nylon flocked
• it is not an appropriate specimen source when the exact anatomic site is not provided

  Wound
• Pre-Moisetened swab should be placed in a transport medium

  Stuarts or Amie

  Cary-Blair

  JEMBEC

  LIM broth
• Pre-moistened swab transport medium for rectal swab

  Cary-Blair
• Pre-moistened swab transport medium for genitourinary

  JEMBEC (John E. Martin Biological Environmental Chamber)
• Pre-moistened swab transport medium for vaginal swab in pregnant woman

  LIM broth
• If the wound is specimen source, the specimen should be collected by _ _ rather than by swab

  needle aspiration
• Specimen commonly obtained by the patient are

  Urine, Sputum, Stool
• Specimen should be transported to the laboratory ideally within __ of collection, preferable with __

  30 minutes, 2 hours
• The primary goal of specimen transport is to maintain the specimen as near to its

  original state
• Specimen can be maintained by storage or with the use of:

  Preservative

  Anticoagulant

  Transport or holding medium or culture medium
• Two specimen types in which preservatives can be used

  Urine and Stool
• It is used to maintain accurate urine colony count

  Boric Acid
• It is used for school for ova and parasite examination

  Polyvinyl Alcohol and Buffered Formalin
• Stool for __ toxin assay should be collected without a preservatives and can be refrigerated or frozen at __

  Clostridium difficile, -70 degree Celsius
• Preservative should not be added on fecal specimens for __

  bacteriological testing
• if specimen for bacterial culture are delayed longer that 2 hours, the specimen can be added to

  Cary-Blair transport medium
• ● Contain substances that do not promote multiplication of microorganisms but ensure their preservation and are available in swab collection systems

  ● Maintain the viability of microorganisms present in a specimen without supporting the growth of organisms

  Transport or Holding Media
• SPS (Sodium Polyanethol Sulfonate) at what percent?

  0.025
• Commonly used and is the most appropriate/common anticoagulant used for microbiology specimen

  SPS (0.025 - 0.050%)
• Ratio for blood: SPS is

  10:1
• To counteracts the action of SPS, addition of __


  1% gelatin
• What is often used for viral culture and isolation of Mycobacterium spp.

  Heparin
• Material known or suspected to contain a pathogen that causes disease in human or animals

  Infectious substance
• contains the infections substance, and the receptacle should be watertight, leak-proof, and labelled properly including the contents of the sample

  Primary Receptacle