rickharrison at my-deja.com wrote:
> In article <39301B5B.5DDAC51B at cable.A2000.nl>,
> lamb <L.A.M.Buisman at cable.A2000.nl> wrote:
> >
> > It's horses
> > > for course, al gram-negative safety-pin shaped bacillus with
> > > bipolar staining consistent with Burkholderia
> > > pseudomallei.
> >Excuse me ? horses?
Not my words.
We did once get a sputum sample from an elephant in the zoo.
When we opened the (large) container we expected something massive.
But no, about 0.1 ml of something slimy.
Gram stain showed enormous tetrads of grampositive cocci.
So now we claim we discovered Macrococcus elephantii.
Never saw them again.
Some time after that samples from the zoo were sent to a veterinary
lab.
Thank God for that, most stuff stank!!
> . We wash purulent bits of sputum in saline to remove
> > saliva
> > Poor buggers...do you really recover more pathogens?
It is a bit time-consuming, but less than it seems. At first it
seems like a frustrating fishing competition, but after getting some
experience you get the hang of it.
As for recovery, I can't compare with other methods.
With very purulent sputum it won't make a difference, I suppose.
In general I am sure the amount of contaminating flora is reduced.
For a quick ZN we don't wash sputum, and then we see many more
epithelial cells and flora than we usually see in Gram stains.
Loes
