Catheter Information and Courses from MediaLab, Inc.
These are the MediaLab courses that cover Catheter and links to relevant pages within the course.
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| Which of the following is the most suitable specimen for the isolation of Bordetella pertussis: | View Page |
| Review 1 Francois P. Vaudaux P. Foster TJ. Lew DP.:
Host-bacteria interactions in foreign body infections.
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. 17:514-20, 1996Persistent staphylococcal infections are a major medical problem, especially when they occur on implanted materials or intravascular catheters.This review describes some of the recently discovered molecular mechanisms of Staphylococcus aureus attachment to host proteins coating biomedical implants.These interactions involve specific surface proteins, called bacterial adhesins, that recognize specific domains of host proteins deposited on indwelling devices, such as fibronectin, fibrinogen, or fibrin.Elucidation of molecular mechanisms of S. aureus adhesion to the different host proteins may lead to the development of specific inhibitors blocking attachment of S. aureus, which may decrease the risk of bacterial colonization of indwelling devices. | View Page |
| Decreasing the risk of staphylococcal colonization of indwelling catheters in the future may involve: | View Page |
| Collecting Blood Specimens for Coagulation Testing The specimen of choice for coagulation testing is plasma. Venous blood is drawn into a 3.2% buffered sodium citrate tube (blue top tube), yielding a whole blood sample with a 9:1 blood to anticoagulant ratio. Inadequate filling of the collection tube will decrease this ratio, and may affect test results. A blue top tube used for coagulation testing should be drawn before any other tubes containing additives. This includes tubes containing other anticoagulants and/or plastic serum tubes containing clot activators. A serum tube that does not contain an additive can be collected before the blue top tube. If a winged blood collection set is used in drawing a specimen for coagulation testing, a discard tube should be drawn first. The discard tube must be used to fill the blood collection tubing dead space to assure that the proper anticoagulant/blood ratio is maintained, but the discard tube does not need to be completely filled. The discard tube should be a nonadditive or a coagulation tube. If a blood specimen used for coagulation testing must be collected from an indwelling line that may contain heparin, the line should be flushed with 5 mL of saline, and the first 5 mL of blood or 6-times the line volume (dead space volume of the catheter) be drawn off and discarded before the coagulation tube is filled. | View Page |
| The colonies illustrated in this photograph were recovered from a blood culture after 48 hour incubation at 30°C. The most likely source for the septicemia is: | View Page |
| This photomicrograph is an acid-fast stained smear prepared from a yeast colony growing on ascospore agar. A helmet-shaped, red-staining, acid fast yeast cell is seen in the center of view at the tip of the arrow, against the background, blue-staining blastoconidia. The presumptive identification of Hansenula anomala was made. Predisposing conditions that may indicate that this isolate is more than a contaminant include: | View Page |
| Sites to avoid Avoid the following sites:Scarred, abraded, or inflamed skin.Arms containing IV catheters.Edematous armsArms with casts. | View Page |
| Push tube onto holder Gently push the tube onto the needle holder so that the catheter inside the needle holder penetrates the tube.Blood flow should be visible at this point. | View Page |
| If cultures are required the following specimen collection method must be used: | View Page |
| Oil or Fat Droplets Oil or fat droplets may appear as uniformly round bright globules of various sizes under high power brightfield. Oil droplets from catheter lubricants may be confused with cells, especially red cells. Lipid material from vaginal creams also forms droplets in urine. | View Page |