Identification of Neisseria gonorrhoea and Neisseria meningitidis by a carbohydrate disc technique.

Serum agar sugars are variable in performance when used to identify the pathogenic Neisseria. In these circumstances, it has been common practice to rely on the Gram strain and oxidase reaction to confirm the clinical diagnosis. However, with reports of isolations of Neisseria gonorrhoea from nonurogenital sites and isolations of Neisseria meningitidis from cases of neonatal ophthalmia (Barr and Danielsson, 1971; Cowan, 1969; Furmora, Wise, and Many, 1967; Hellgren, 1971; Iqbal, 1971; Rogers, 1972), it is of increasing importance that a reliable simple confirmatory test be used. The method described uses a routine gonococcal isolation medium combined with easily prepared carbohydrate discs.