Microbiology Flashcards
What are the fields of service provided by microbiologists?
Bacteriology
Serology
Molecular
What is baceriology?
Isolation of pathogenic micro-organism by culturing samples onto culture media.
What is serology?
Clotted blood samples are tested fro the presence of virsues or the antibodies against it to either diagnose the cause of infection or checking immune status.
What is molecular?
Rapid diagnosis to speed up treatment or isolation. Also monitor treatment performance.
What are samples that may be taken from pateints or organic matter?
Swabs; from any would, orfice, or body part
Tissue samples; internal or external tissue of any kind
Bodily fluids; urine, blood, CSF, pleural fluid
How is microscopy used in microbial pathology? Give an example.
Microscopic inspection and investigation may be used in micorbial pathology to further examine a specimen or sample. (e.g. automated microscopy is used to analyse urine samples, giving quantitation for WBC, RBC, etc..)
What is the function of MALDI-TOF?
MALDI-TOF is used as a technique for identification of bacteria, myobacteria and certain fungal pathogens.
What is antibiotic resistance?
When bacteria and fungi develop the ability to resist or defeat treatments/drugs designed to kill said bacteria or fungi.
How is antibiotic resistance screened?
Once the bacterium is identified different sets of drugs can be tested on a sample plate and observed to see performance of resistance.
What is mycology?
Fields of fungal infections. Fungal infections can become systemic and life threatening in immunocompromised patients.
What is parasitology?
In microbial pathology, parasitology is never blood-borne but rather from other organic material such as fecal matter.
How is bacteriology done?
Pathogenic bacteria are identified, then tested against a suitable range of antibiotics. This is done by spreading the sample onto an agar plate producing colonies to be identified.
What can be detected by serology?
Can be used for Antibody/antigen detection. Detection of current or past viral/bacteria infections. The main assay used is ELISA.
What tests are used in molecular? How is molecular used in detection?
NAAT, PCR. Can be used to detect specific infections in samples and if infections are low level.
