Where all your ID needs are met! Sort of.
Legionella is an interesting organism, it tends to be one of those things you end up looking for and never finding while in the wards but it also tends to cause occasional outbreaks of pneumonia. The most common test that is ordered for this is the urine legionella antigen. I will cover some of the
Blood cultures are typically drawn in patients who present with sepsis due to concern for infection. While the trigger response to “fevers and leukocytosis” is to obtain blood cultures, the positive rate that has been quoted ranges from 4-7% (1), depending on the source. Indeed, blood culture contamination is a frequent problem that is encountered
Cell-free DNA (also known as circulating-free DNA) was discovered in human blood in 1948 (1), and it generally comprises fragments of nucleic acids that circulate in the blood without any cells attached to it (in other words, just DNA out in the wild). This did not catch on as a diagnostic modality until 1997, when
I am willing to bet most of the people that come across this blog remember a time when you took organic chemistry. While I do not find this topic particularly interesting, mass spectrometry was briefly touched upon. This is an analytical tool that measures the mass of different molecules within a sample by measuring their
Blood cultures are the gold standard for evaluating patients with suspected bacteremia. They are an indispensable tool in evaluating diseases such as infective endocarditis, septic shock, meningitis, and pneumonia. By far, it is relatively simple to interpret the results (its either positive or negative) though whether it represents a clinically relevant entity or contamination is
Diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis can be a tricky thing. As highlighted previously, the Ziehl-Neelsen smear is not a terribly sensitive methodology and the MTB-PCR sensitivity depends on if the sample is smear positive. Given that pulmonary tuberculosis tends to have a higher bacterial burden, it would be reasonable to think that other diseases without this high
Pulmonary tuberculosis is a global disease that tends to burden underdeveloped countries disproportionally as well people living with HIV. It is a difficult disease to diagnose in the microbiology lab, and as such, there have been various methods deployed in an attempt to diagnose it. While culture is the gold standard, it can take anywhere
Procalcitonin is a precursor of the hormone calcitonin and is released into systemic circulation within 4 hours of inoculation of bacterial endotoxin, In general, cytokines enhance procalcitonin release while interferons, which are released in context of viral infections. Because of this, there has been a push towards using PCT to differentiate bacterial from viral infections
The spread of syphilis in 1494/1495 in Italy is the first known instance of an outbreak of the disease. It is believed the disease was brought in from the New World by Columbus and his crew members and following the invasion of France in Naples, Italy, the disease began to spread throughout Europe. Known as
Sputum cultures for the diagnosis of pneumonia tends to be a tricky subject. Many times, obtaining an adequate sputum sample can be difficult, as patients may not be able to produce adequate amounts of sputum, there is contamination of oropharyngeal flora that clouds the diagnosis (especially in an aspiration event or those who have underlying
Dr. Germophile 