clinical methods
Chlamydiology and RickettsiologyThe Isolation of Orientia tsutsugamushi and Rickettsia typhi from Human Blood through Mammalian Cell Culture: a Descriptive Series of 3,227 Samples and Outcomes in the Lao People’s Democratic RepublicIn the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos), rickettsial infections, including scrub and murine typhus, account for a significant burden of fevers. The Mahosot Hospital Microbiology Laboratory in Vientiane, Laos, routinely performs rickettsial isolation from hospitalized patients with suspected rickettsioses using mammalian cell culture systems. We review the clinical and laboratory factors associated with successful...
BacteriologyEnhancement of Culture of Legionella longbeachae from Respiratory Samples by Use of Immunomagnetic Separation and Antimicrobial DecontaminationLegionella longbeachae is the commonest Legionella species identified in patients with community-acquired pneumonia in New Zealand. Isolation of the organism on culture is the gold standard for the diagnosis of Legionnaires disease, but it has poor sensitivity (40%) compared with quantitative PCR (qPCR). We have developed a selective decontamination process...
BacteriologyA Sample-to-Report Solution for Taxonomic Identification of Cultured Bacteria in the Clinical Setting Based on Nanopore SequencingAmplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene is commonly used for the identification of bacterial isolates in diagnostic laboratories and mostly relies on the Sanger sequencing method. The latter, however, suffers from a number of limitations, with the most significant being the inability to resolve mixed amplicons when closely related species are coamplified from a mixed culture. This often leads to either increased turnaround time or...
BacteriologyImproved Species-Level Clinical Identification of Enterobacteriaceae through Broad-Range dnaJ PCR and SequencingEnterobacteriaceae represent a diverse and medically important family of bacteria that are difficult to identify to the species level using the standard molecular method of 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Prior work has demonstrated the value of dnaJ gene sequence analysis in resolving different members of the family. However, existing protocols are not optimized...
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- Photo QuizAnswer to June 2018 Photo Quiz