Intro to Medical Microbiology Flashcards
the three domains of life
- Bacteria (Prokaryote)
- Archaea (Prokaryote)
- Eucarya (Eukaryotes)
Procaryotes are
single-cell organisms that do not have a nucleus and lack membrane-bound organelles.
microbiology is the study of
micro organisms
applied microbiology is
medical microbiology
basic microbiology is
cellular microbiology.
Microbial causes of infection
- Bacteria – Prokaryotic
- Viruses – unclassified
- Fungi – Eukaryotic
- Parasites – Eukaryotic (usually [can be vector for
prokaryotes]) - Prions – unclassified
Bacterium:
Chiefly round, spiral or rod shaped single celled prokaryotic organism that typically lives in soil, water, organic matter or the bodies of plants and animals
Virus:
A unique, acellular, metabolically inert organism that only replicates within living cells.
Fungus:
Any of a kingdom of saprophytic (an organism which gets its energy from dead and decaying organic matter) and parasitic spore-producing eukaryotic typically filamentous organisms including moulds, yeasts, mushrooms and yeasts
Parasite:
An organism living in, with or on another organism
Prion:
Protein of unknown function that resides on the surface of brain cells. An abnormal form of prion protein that in mammals includes pathogenic forms that:
- arise spontaneously (e.g. genetic mutation)
- transmission (e.g. via infected tissue)
Upon accumulation in the brain cause a prion disease
e.g. BSE or CJD.
In micro-organisms size matters as
they can help determine what type of organism they are as they are sized differently.
Parasites size
microscopic to over 30m
Fungi size
2 to 10μm
Bacteria size
0.2 to 0.5μm
Viruses
20 to 400nm
Prions
10nm (often measured in Angstrom [1A=0.1nm])
Multi-disciplinary team (MDT) consists of:
- Medical Microbiologists and Virologists
- Laboratory Manager.
- Clinical scientists.
- Biomedical Scientists.
- Healthcare support workers.
- IT.
What does a medical microbiologist do?
- Advise on the diagnosis of infection.
- Review laboratory results.
- Advise on interpretation of results.
- Advise on management of infection(antimicrobials).
- Telemedicine or ward review.
- Infection prevention and control.
- Develop policies and guidelines.
- Work as part of a MDT
sterile parts of the body
- blood.
- cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
- bone. includes: bone marrow
- joint fluid. includes: synovial fluid
- pleural fluid. includes: chest fluid
- peritoneal fluid. includes: abdominal fluid
- pericardial fluid.
non-sterile parts of the body
- Brain
- oesophagus
- lungs
- large intestine
Sputum used for
lower respiratory tract infection.
Throat swab used for
tonsillitis
swab used for
wound infection ,genital tract infection.
Faeces used for
infectious diarrhoea
Blood culture used for
septicaemia (sepsis).
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) used for
meningitis.
Aspirate of pus used for
abscess
Bone used for
osteomyelitis
Gram stain used
to visualise bacteria and yeasts/fungi
Special stains
Ziehl Neelsen stain or auramine stain for Mycobacteria.
viruses not visible in
light microscope
