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Coli Information and Courses from MediaLab, Inc.

These are the MediaLab courses that cover Coli and links to relevant pages within the course.

Learn more about laboratory continuing education for medical technologists to earn CE credit for AMT, ASCP, NCA, and state license renewal and recertification. Or get information about laboratory safety and compliance courses that deliver cost-effective OSHA safety training and continuing education to your laboratory's employees.

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CLIA Blood Banking Review
Which BBP is not covered in the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard?View Page

CLIA Microbiology / Serology Review
This suspicious form, found in a stool sample, measures 15 micro meters.View Page
I measure 15 micro meters and am found in stool.View Page
I reside in the mouth where I measure approximately 17 micro meters.View Page
I measure 12 micro meters and am found in stool.View Page
Which of the following organisms is the most common cause of acute cystitis:View Page
The most frequent cause of bacterial meningitis in older adults is:View Page
The indole test may be used to differentiate members of which of the following species:View Page
Which of the following organisms is most likely to be associated with gas gangrene:View Page
Which one of the following statements about E.coli O157:H7 is false:View Page
The red/pink color of the colonies (E. coli) seen on this MacConkey Agar Plate is an indication of:View Page

Current Topics in Clinical Microbiology
The colonies shown in the blood agar (upper) and MacConkey agar (lower) biplate are a 24 hour growth from an aerobic blood culture bottle that became positive at 12 hours after inoculation. The appearance of the colonies on MacConkey agar rules out the following two bacterial species:View Page
The reactions seen in the portion of the API strip shown in the photograph, effectively rules out Escherichia coli.View Page
Clinical isolates of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae may possess ESBL activity. Therefore, clinical laboratories should be screening all clinically significant isolates of these two species.View Page
ESBL Activity

Illustrated is the picture of the surface of a disk diffusion test including a ceftazidime disk (left) and a combintation ceftazidime/clavulanic acid disk (right).Observe in the photograph that the zone of inhibition around the the combination ceftazidime/clavulanic acid disk (right) is at least 5 mm larger than around the clavulanic acid disk (left).This observation that the presence of clavulanic acid, a beta-lactamase inhibitor, has resulted in such a large increase in the zone of inhibition indicates that an extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL)is being produced.When an organism is producing an ESBL, the susceptibility to individual cephalosporins cannot be predicted, thus requiring that each drug must be tested individually.It may be important to detect ESBL-producing stains of K. pneumoniae and E. coli as treatment failure may occur if the wrong cephalosporin is selected.

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Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases

In follow-up to the observations of the ESBL screening test, the following antibiotic susceptibility profile was later reported: Ampicillin = R; Cefazolin = R; Cefoxitin 1 = S; Ciprofloxacin 0.25 = S; Gentamicin 1 = S; Ceftazidime 32 = R; Imipenem The susceptibility of the 2nd generation drug cefoxitin, with resistance of the 1st generation cefazolin and the 3rd generation ceftazidime, is another way in addition to the screening test in which ESBL activity may be detected. It is recommended that clinical microbiologists check the antibiotic susceptibility profiles for possible ESBL activity of clinically significant isolates of K. pneumoniae and E. coli.Most automated systems have built in methods for automatically detecting an ESBL isolate, or provide an "alert" that such a strain may be present.

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Introduction to Bioterrorism
Category B Agents in Food and Water

A subset of Category B agents comprise pathogens that are food or waterborne. These pathogens include but are not limited to: Salmonella species Shigella dysenteriae Escherichia coli 0157:H7 Vibrio chloerae Cryptosporidium parvum

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Packaging and Shipping Infectious Materials
Category A Definition and Examples

A category A infectious substance is in a form that is capable of causing permanent disability or life-threatening or fatal disease in otherwise healthy humans or animals when exposure to it occurs. Exposure would occur if the substance were released from its protective packaging and a human or animal came into contact with it. Some examples of category A infectious substances include: Bacillus anthracis (cultures only) Brucella abortus (cultures only) Brucella melitensis (cultures only) Burkholderia mallei (cultures only) Clostridium botulinum (cultures only) Dengue virus (cultures only) Escherichia coli, verotoxigenic (cultures only) Ebola virus Francisella tularensis (cultures only) Hantaviruses causing hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome Herpes B virus (cultures only) Human immunodeficiency virus (cultures only) Lassa virus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (cultures only) Poliovirus (cultures only) Rabies and other lyssaviruses (culture only) Shigella dysenteriae type I (cultures only) West Nile virus (cultures only) Yersinia pestis (cultures only)This is not an exhaustive list. Sometimes, deciding on the classification of an infectious substance requires professional judgement and involves knowing the medical history or symptoms of the source patient or animal and/or knowing the local epidemiological conditions at the time the patient specimen or culture was obtained. If there is doubt as to whether or not a substance meets the criteria of category A, it must be treated as a category A substance for shipping.

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Parasitology Review
The ELISA method may be used to detect:View Page
The avoidance of laboratory diagnosis techniques that utilize water is recommended for the identification of which of these parasites? View Page
A specimen suspected of containing which organism may be cultured by placing it on an agar plate seeded with gram negative rods?View Page
This suspicious form, recovered from a stool sample, measures 30 µm in diameter.View Page
This suspicious form, seen in a stool sample, measures 10 µm in diameter.View Page
This suspicious form measures 13 µm and was recovered from a stool sample.View Page
This suspicious form, found in a stool sample, measures 15 µm.View Page
Recovered in a stool sample, this suspicious form measures 7 µm.View Page
This suspicious form, found in stool, measures 25 µm.View Page
This suspicious form, found in stool, measure 10 µm.View Page
This suspicious form, which was recovered in stool specimen and measures 32 µm, is responsible for which of the following diseases?View Page
Match each pictured parasite with its corresponding associated condition:View Page
Entamoeba, Endolimax, and Iodamoeba are members of which of subphylum?View Page
Which of the following parasites typically survive human stomach juices?View Page
The protozoa are classified and placed in groups based on which of the following criteria? View Page
Match each protozoal trophozoite listed below with its corresponding pictured cyst form:View Page
Match each amebic cyst listed here with its respective trophozoite form pictured:View Page
Match each parasite listed here with its corresponding optimal specimen type from which it may be recovered: (Answers may be used more than once.)View Page
Which of the following parasites resembles Entamoeba histolytica but lack ingested red blood cells in the trophozoite form?View Page
Match each parasite listed here with its respective means of locomotion: (Answers may be used more than once.)View Page
The largest protozoan known to infect humans is:View Page
The nuclei of which of the following parasites lack peripheral chromatin?View Page
Arrange these parasites in order by general relative size from smallest to largest:View Page
Match each parasite listed here with its corresponding typical nuclear appearance:View Page
Match each pair of parasites listed here with the key morphologic characteristics that help to distinguish between them:View Page
Arrange the following parasites in decreasing order (from large to small) based on relative size:View Page
Match each parastie with the most common maximum number of nuclei present in the mature cyst form: (Answers may be used more than once.)View Page
Label the morphologic structures on this parasite form:View Page
Label the morphologic structures on this parasite form:View Page
A 43 year old female presented to her doctor for a routine check-up. Her only complaint was that she had been experiencing watery stools that occasionally contained pus and blood. Examination revealed tenderness in her abdomen. A stool for parasite study was sent to the lab. Two suspicious forms were seen. The oblong form on measured 53 µm by 60 µm whereas the rounder form measured 45 µm by 37 µm. Use the pulldown boxes to identify each picture:View Page
A 12 year old female went to her doctor for her yearly back-to-school check-up. She was in good health and was asymptomatic at the time of the examination. Due to the increased incidence of parasites in the area, the doctor ordered a stool for parasite examination as part of the routine physical testing. Multiple suspicious forms, measuring approximately 9 µm each were seen. Which of the following is most likely the identification of these forms?View Page
A 17 year old female went to her doctor complaining of diarrhea. With the exception of seasonal allergies, she was in relatively good health. Patient history was unremarkable. A stool was submitted for culture and parasite examination. The culture was reported out as "no enteric pathogens isolated." This suspicious form was seen on wet preparation and permanent stain. It measures 27 µm. This patient is most likely suffering from which of the following conditions:View Page
A stool was received in the laboratory for parasitic examination on a 49 year old female who just returned from missionary work in numerous third world countries around the world. The patient had been suffering from mild diarrhea over the past two weeks. These two suspicious forms were seen. Form 1 measures a mere 6 µm whereas form 2 measures 35 µm. Label these two forms:View Page
I measure 15 µm and am found in stool.View Page
I reside in the mouth where, when present, I measure approximately 17 µm.View Page
I measure 12 µm and am found in stool.View Page
I am found in stool and may be easily mistaken for "junk." I measure 12 µm.View Page
I am 12 µm in size and reside in stool. I may be easily missed since I tend to "blend-in" with fecal debris.View Page
I measure 45 µm and am found in stool.View Page
I am found in stool and measure 45 µm.View Page
The Enterotest may be used to recover which of the following parasites?View Page
Match each amebic cyst with its respective name:View Page
This suspicious form, which measures 20 µm, was recovered in sigmoidoscopic material. Name that parasite!View Page

Reading Gram Stained Direct Smears
Quality Control Smears

Quality control smears are stained at the same time as the patient's slides.They must be examined before you examine the patient's slides.If properly stained, the Staphylococcus aureus on the positive control slide will stain blue, or gram positive.The Escherichia coli on the negative control slide will stain red, or gram negative.If these slides are not stained properly, the problem must be resolved and new slides made before the patient specimen is examined.

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The smears used for quality control are: (Choose ALL of the correct answers)View Page
Evaluation of Controls

If stains and technique are adequate, S. aureus should be Gram positive (blue) and E. coli should be Gram negative (pink). If control slides do not react appropriately, reliable results cannot be assured for the specimen smears. Check stains and technique and prepare more control smears until proper results are achieved, then remake and stain the new direct smears. If it is impossible to prepare a new smear, the poorly stained smear may still be salvaged. Remove immersion oil from the smear using xylol. Use appropriate procedures and personal protective equipment when using xylol, since it is hazardous chemical. If the smear is underdecolorized, repeat the decolorization and counterstain steps. If the smear is overdecolorized, the slide should be stained again.

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Gram negative cocci which occur in pairs with their adjacent sides flattened, giving them a coffee bean shape are:View Page

Reading Gram Stained Smears From Cultures
Which of the following statements are TRUE for the Gram positive control smear?View Page
Microscopic Appearance of Control Slides

The microscopic appearance of control slides must also be checked. The Gram positive control, Staphylococcus aureus, should stain blue, and the Gram negative control, Escherichia coli, should stain pink.

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