Rapid diagnosis and the routine microbiology laboratory

Microbiology and laboratory diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infections.

In the article that follows, Carroll and Reimer address a number of issues related to the clinical and laboratory diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infections. These syndromes occur with great frequency in both adults and children and have tremendous economic impact, related not only to lost productivity in the workplace but also to the frequent prescription by physicians of antibiotics, eve...

16S rRNA gene sequencing and the routine clinical microbiology laboratory: a perfect marriage?

S rRNA Gene Sequencing and the Routine Clinical Microbiology Laboratory : a Perfect Marriage ?

Evaluation of the automated phoenix system for potential routine use in the clinical microbiology laboratory.

A comparative study was designed to evaluate the identification (ID) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) performances of the BD Phoenix Automated Microbiology System (Becton Dickinson Diagnostic Systems [BD], Pont de Claix, France). A total of 305 single clinical isolates were collected, and comparisons were made with routine manual methods in use in our microbiology laboratories. Th...

Quantitative sputum culture as a means of excluding false positive reports in the routine microbiology laboratory.

A relatively simple technique for sputum homogenization and dilution is described. Results show that this technique is reliable for isolation and quantitative culture of organisms from cases of chest infection. The technique has resulted in significant reduction in false positive reports, particularly when a system of interpretative reporting is utilized based on 10(7) organisms per millilitre ...