Module 13

• Clinical specimens


  Specimens collected from patients, such as blood, urine, feces, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), are known as?
• High-quality clinical specimens


  Are required to achieve accurate, clinically relevant laboratory results.
• Acute stage of the disease


  The most appropriate time to collect a specimen.
• Blood 


  It is usually sterile.
• Bacteremia 


  The presence of bacteria in the bloodstream is known as?
• Septicemia


  It is a serious disease characterized by chills, fever, prostration, and the presence of bacteria or their toxins in the bloodstream.
• Urine 


  It is normally sterile in the bladder, but becomes contaminated by indigenous microbiota of the distal urethra during voiding.
• Clean-catch, midstream urine

  Contamination is reduced by collecting a?
• Colony count 


  It is a way of estimating the number of viable bacteria that are present in a urine specimen.
• Calibrated loop


  It is either 0.01 or 0.001 mL, is used to inoculate the entire surface of a blood agar plate.
• Meningitis


  It is the inflammation or infection of the membranes (meninges) that surround the brain and spinal cord.
• Encephalitis


  It is the inflammation or infection of the brain.
• Meningoencephalitis


  It is the inflammation or infection of both the brain and the meninges.
• Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF)


  It is collected by lumbar puncture (spinal tap) into a sterile tube; this is a surgically aseptic procedure performed by a physician.
• Sputum 


  It is the pus that accumulates deep within the lungs of a patient with pneumonia, tuberculosis, or other lower respiratory tract infection.
• Throat swabs 


  These are used to determine whether a patient has strep throat.
• Wound specimens


  It should be an aspirate (i.e., pus collected by needle and syringe) rather than a swab.
• Fecal specimens


  It should be collected at the laboratory and processed immediately to prevent a decrease in temperature; allow the pH to drop and cause the death of many Shigella and Salmonella species.
• Fecal transport kits 


  Are available for collection at home and subsequent transport to the testing laboratory
• Pathology Department


  Clinical specimens are submitted to the CML, which is a part of the?
• Pathology Department


  referred to as “the Lab” is under the direction of a pathologist
• Pathologist 


  A physician who has specialized training in pathology
• Anatomical Pathology


  Diseased organs, stained tissue sections, and cytology specimens are examined here. Autopsies are performed in the morgue and some Pathology Departments have an Electron Microscopy Laboratory.
• Molecular diagnostics


  It is a widely expanding area of the Pathology Laboratory.
• Gene mutations associated with birth defects and cancer


  These are often identified by sequencing or molecular probe techniques.
• Clinical Pathology 


  Personnel include pathologists, chemists and microbiologists, medical laboratory scientists
• Primary mission of the CML


  To assist clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.
• Bacteriology pathogens 


  Are isolated from specimens, tests are performed to identify them, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing is performed whenever appropriate to do so.
• Mycology section 


  Responsibility is to assist clinicians in the diagnosis of fungal infections (mycoses).
• Virology Section 


  Assists clinicians in the diagnosis of viral diseases.
• Parasitology Section


  Assists clinicians in the diagnosis of parasitic diseases.
• Parasites 


  Are identified by observing and recognizing various parasites’ life cycle stages.
• Mycobacteriology Section (also called the TB Lab)


  Assists clinicians in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and other mycobacterial infections.
• Sputum


  Most common type of specimen submitted in Mycobacteriology Section (also called the TB Lab)
• Mycobacterium spp.


  Are identified by the acid-fast staining procedure and by using a combination of growth characteristics
• Nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAAT)


  Are used for identification of organisms in direct patient specimens and to provide nucleic acid for sequencing.