laboratory

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Practical Microbiology: Stool Cultures

3 Aug 2020 2 minute read 0 comments Leonis

         Handling stool specimens may not be fun, and I don't need to go into the details. The cultures, on the other hand, are rather straight forward. It's another method to detect diseases in a patient. Note the culture mentioned here is different...

Practical Microbiology: The Indicative Smell

26 Jul 2020 2 minute read 0 comments Leonis

         Well, the thing about working in an understaffed situation is that new hires are coming. And some of them have. Now, the training part could take a while. The fun part about training someone is that you get to know your new coworker. At the...

Questionable Practices of the Past: Mouth Pipetting

22 Jul 2020 1 minute read 2 comments Leonis

         Throughout my training, I've heard of the fabled technique of mouth pipetting. As the name suggests, it involves using pipettes, but with your mouth. Sound scary yet?          For those of you who have taken laboratory courses, you are most...

Killers Rising: Candida Auris

28 Dec 2019 1 minute read 2 comments Leonis

           That PSA has been up for months in the department. And yet, I still have not come across a culture with possible Candida auris. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the organism, it is one of the latest worries under the CDC watchfu...

Practical Microbiology: Strep Typing

21 Dec 2019 2 minute read 2 comments Leonis

Beta-hemolytic streptococci (BHS) can cause a lot of issues in patients. At work, we have dedicated cultures for screening Group A (strep throat) and Group B Strep (labor). Of course, they can cause infections in other parts of the body.          Unl...

A Night in the Lab

12 Dec 2019 3 minute read 0 comments Leonis

Some Pixabay image            It's another night at the job when I received a phone call from the floor in regards to a test. For the record, I work in the microbiology department in the hospital lab. The conversation would often go something like...

Practical Microbiology: Gram Stains

15 Sep 2019 2 minute read 2 comments Leonis

Gram stains are some of the most basic microbiology tools in medicine. The idea is to give clinicians clues of the nature of the infection. They can give preliminary treatments on the patients as needed. Then, the lab can perform more detailed sensit...