Clinical Diagnosis of Bacterial Infections

Question 1

What is Sutton’s Law?

Answer 1

States that, when diagnosing, one should first consider the obvious

Question 2

What body fluids should be sterile?

Answer 2

Blood, CSF, and urine

Question 3

What is the difference between sensitivity and specificity of an assay?

Answer 3

Sensitivity is the ability of a test to correctly identify those with the disease and specificity is the ability of the assay to correctly identify those without the disease

Question 4

What is the most common type of culture ordered? 2nd most common?

Answer 4

Respiratory syndrome cultures and smears; Genitourinary syndromes

Question 5

What is MacConkey agar used for?

Answer 5

It is a selective and differential culture medium for bacteria designed to selectively isolate G (-) and enteric) bacilli and differentiate them based on lactose fermentation

Question 6

What is the only kind of bacteria that will grow on a Thayer-Martin medium?

Answer 6

N. gonorrheae

Question 7

What are Kirby-Bauer susceptibilities?

Answer 7

When a tiny disc with antibiotic are placed on a culture plate, producing an inhibition zone around the disc where all the surrounding bacteria have been killed by the antibiotic

Question 8

What is the minimum inhibitory concentration?

Answer 8

The lowest concentration of an antimicrobial drug that will inhibit the visible growth of a microbe after overnight incubation