Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MICROBIOLOGY METHODS
Nelson S. Brewer, M.D.,* aml Lyle A. Weed, M.D.~
Abstract
*Insnuctor in Internal Medicine, Ma)o Medical School. Consultant, Division of Intectious Dis-
eases, and Section of Clinical Microbiology,MayoCliificand Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Min-
nesota.
tEmerinls Professor of Microbiology, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine (Universityof Min-
nesota). EmeritusConsultant,Section of ClinicalMicrobiology,MayoClinicand MayoFoundation,
Rochester, ~linnesota.
141
HUMAN I'ATHOLOGY-VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2 March 1976
disease have no difliculty witll pneunlococci several sites should be obtained to enhance
but are susceptible to staphylococci and recovery of tile etiologic agent.
gram negative organisms. Besides inllu- Closed lesions may be aspirated with a
encing the etiologic agent involved, the syringe using a large needle to permit re-
patient's underlying disease may determine covery of larger chnnps of organisms and
the nature of the inflammatory lesion. Ne- necrotic debris3 Local anesthesia may be
crotizing nonsuppurative lesions may be necessary with very l)ainfld lesions; how-
found in gram negative infections iil pa- ever, one shoukl be judicious in using these
tients with m,dignant hematologic disease, agents because the antibacterial activity of
whereas similar organisms in patients with- procaine ires been demonstrated. 4 Use of
out malignant hematologic disease would general anesthesia in the operating room
produce I)olynmrpllonuclear exudation may be required in some cases. Sterile mi-
and abscess formation. ~ croscopic slides may be smeared with the
T h e demonstration of micro-organ- purulent material at the time of collection
isms in draining wounds and tissue speci- for Gram, acid fast, or 1)otassium hydroxide
mens gives important clues to the etiologic preparations.
agent and may enable therap)'to be planned Biopsy specimens may be placed into a
and started on a rational basis. However, sterile, wide mouthed bottle. If biopsy of a
the morphologic appearance can be mis- large lesion is contemplated, it is important
leading, and recovery of the organism by to obtain specimens from several parts of
cultural techniques provides tile most the lesion to ensure adequate sampling.
accurate method for identification of the Also, if there are muhil)le lesions, several
infectious agent. specimens should be obtained fi'om dif-
ferent sites. Sterile, wide mouthed bottles
should be available in tile operating room
SPECIMEN COLLECTION so that the surgeon can place the material
AND TRANSPORT for culture into them directl}', tints mini-
mizing the possibility of contamination of
Draining sinuses should be curetted the specimen in the pathology laborator)'
with a sterile curene to recover organisms or inadvertent fixation. If an abscess is
tlmt might be found only in the sinus wall surgically removed, a generous portion of
or in the site of origin, such as suppurative tile abscess wall should be sent lot micro-
lymph nodes or a lesion of osteomyelitis. biologic study; some organisms, like No-
Collection of purulent material fi'om the cardia astemMes, are usually found in the
sinus cavity with a swab is not adequate. abscess wall, whereas others, such as Ac-
Often only secondary invaders are recov- timmoces israelii, are more likely to be in
ered by this technique, and not infre- purulent drainages. The surgeon can bisect
quently the swab has dried by the time it a lesion, sending half for histopathologic
reaches the laboratory. The curettings may study and placing the remainder of tile
be placed into a sterile bottle with 2 to 3 nil. specimen into the sterile container for
of nutrient broth for transport to the lab- microbiok)gic stud)'.
oratory. A specimen collection kit, such as Sometimes, when one lympli node is
~he one described by Start and Weed3 sent to the histology labor,ttory~and an ad-
makes tile procedur e more convenient. jacent node is sent for microbiologic study,
For anaerobic cultures, samples of pu- the histologist identifies organisms in the
l'ulent drainage should be aspirated with a stained sections but no organisms are ctd-
syringe and injected into an anaerobe trans- tured from the other node. Because the
port vial containing l)rercduced medium, a distribution of organisms in a lymph node
When feasible, biopsy of an ulcer wall or cimin may not be uniform, study of muhi-
surgical removal of a sinus tract provides a pie nodes by both histologic stains and cul-
more representative specimen for histo- ture provides tile best opportunity for
logic as well as microbiologic study. (;ran- identifying the etiologic agent.
ular elements resembling sulfnr granules Abdominal exploration in cases of
in purulent drainage should be noted fever of unknown origin is a sEecial in-
especiall }' and collected. If multiple fistulas stance ~:equiring communication "among
Ol- sinus tracts are i)resent, sl)ecimens from the nficrobiologist, the internist, and the
142
DIAGNOSTIC TISSUE MICROBIOLOGY METHODS--BREwER, WEEo
surgeon. When collecting surgical speci- Tissue specimens are minced with ster-
inens, one must keep in mind that addi- ile scissors into a sterile mortar and then
tional material will not be available once ground with a sterile pestle and a sterile
the chest or abdomen is closed. Therefore, abrasive (Alundum). Sufficient nutrient
as much material as is reasonable should be broth is added to produce a 10 to 20 per
collected for study at the time of the proce- cent suspension. T h e material is then
dure. If a wedge liver biopsy is desired, the placed into ix sterile dropper bottle and
surgeon should be so informed. If multi- inoculated onto tile appropriate media.
pie, enlarged lymph nodes are found, lilts Then the tissue suspension is stored in a
of several of them should be submitted for refi'igerator at ,t~ C. for four weeks.
microbiologic study. If an enlarged spleen In our laboratory, if no diagnosis is
is removed, all the tissue not needed for made with gralmlomatous lesions witlfin
pathologic examilmtion should be sent for two weeks after the time of accession, on
microbiologic study. If only a few granulo- the basis of either special histologic stains
111atotls lesions or abscesses a r e present, or preliminary culture results, the tissue
these areas can be studied microbiological- suspension is recultured for mycobacteria,
ly, increasing the likelihood of recovering general bacteria, and fungal organisms
the infecting agent. and the surgical specimen is retrieved ibr
At our institutiolL frozen sections are additioiml microbiologic study. On several
prepared from ahnost all surgical speci- occasions fimgi that were demonstrable in
luens. Granulontatous lesions, both caseous tissue sections but did not grow in the initial
and noncaseous, are cuhured for mycobac- ctllture attempt were finally grown after re-
teria, flmgi, Brucella, and general bacteria. culture. Also Listeria monocvtogenes some-
Other specimens are placed on appropriate times can be recovered only after storage at
media t"o1"culture according to the request 4 ~ C. according to procedures previously
of the patient's physician. described. 6
Tral~sport of tissue specimens to the
laboratory in sterile glass containers is prob-
ably satisfactory tor recovei'y of anaerobic D E M O N S T R A T I O N OF
organisms; however, this subject deserves ORGANISMS BY STAINING
further study.
Weed and Baggenstoss 5 have shown Tile use of special stains for histologic
that reliable Imctcriologic information can specimens can be a valuable adjunct to cul-
be obtained fiom embahned tissues in turing in demonstrating infectious agents.
many instances. They isolated such organ- Also these stains may help define tile role
isms as Escherichia coil, Kh'bsiella pneumoniae, of some cultured organisms as primary
various species of streptococci, F'semlomonas pathogen, secondary invader, or contami-
aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, Haemophilus in- nant. For example, biopsy specimens of
fluenzae, Nocardia asteroides, tlistophmmt cap- necrotic lesions not infrequently grow
sulalum, and M)'cobacterimn tuberculosis from Staphylococcus aureus when cuhured, and
tissue obtained three to 60 hours after the tiffs organism is capable of causing tissue
bodies hild bcen embalmed, collecting their necrosis. However, it also may proliferate
study niateri,d with sterile scissors after in tissue that is necrotic for some other
sterilizing the tissue surface by quick-heat- reason. The presence of these gram posi-
ing gynecologic cautery. tive cocci in necrotic tissue without an in-
flammatory reaction indicates the need to
look furtl~er for the cause of the tissue ne-
P R O C E S S I N G OF crosis.
TISSUE SPECIMENS We. have found that in most cases a
Gram stain, an acid fast stain, and a Gomori
Tissue specimens shovld be proccssed methenamine silver stain suffice for screen-
as soon as possible upon their arrival in the ing of tissue sections fi)r micro-organisms.
microbiology laboratory. Therefore, at our Fungai organisms are readily demonstrable
institution these specimens are bandied on by the Gomori methenamine silver tech-
an emergenqy basis a f t e r regular laboratory nique, and for screening purposes this
hours. stain is prefelved over Other stains such as
143
IlUMAN PATHOLOGY--VOLUME 7, NUMI?,ER 2 March 1976
9 O
-, ..~
-'o
:77"
Figure I. Sulfur granules in purulent
drainage from patient with Actimmo'cesin-
fection.
t" . . ' t
: I
keep illustrative histologic sections that with a clear space surrounding tile faint
have been prepared in our laboratory cell wall of tire organism. The periodic
readily accessible for comparison. Usuall)' acid-Schiff stain also demonstrates the
)'east forms (round bodies) found in vis- surrounding clear space, often with a small
ceral organs prove to be Histoplasma cap- amount of stained material around the
sulatum, Co'ptococcus neofimna,s, Coccidi- periphery of the organism that perhaps
oMes immitis, or Blastomyces dermatitidis. represents shrinkage of the thick polysac-
Co'ptococcus neoformans often appears charide capsule (Fig. 3). The organisms
in hematoxylin and eosin stained sections may show considerable variation in size,
Figure 2. Sectionof sulfur granule in tissue, showi,lgradiating clubl~e projection around peripher)" of 145
granule. (}tematoxylinand eosin stain. •
HUMAN I'ATIIOLOGY--VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2 March 1976
from 4 to 20 p.m., and may be associated darkly staining cell wall o f the u n e n c a p s u -
with a g r a n u l o m a t o u s reaction; in some lated organism stands out readily with the
cases t h e r e may be a minimal inflammatory Gomori m e t h e n a m i n e silver stain. T h e or-
reaction or n o n e at all. *layer's mucicar- ganisms as seen inside macrophages in
mine stain may be used to stain the poly- hematoxylin and eosin stained sections
saccharide capsule. may resemble Toxoplasma or Leishmania;
l!istoplasma capsulatum, on the o t h e r however, organisms o f these two g e n e r a do
hand, appears much m o r e u n i f o r m in size not stain readily with the (,omori methena-
and shape; the organisms usually are 3 to 4 mine silver stain. C o m m o n l y p u l m o n a r y
p.m. in d i a m e t e r (Fig. 4). A granulonmtous granulomas contain structures resembling
response, usually caseous, is found, and the Ilistoplasma capsulatum, but no growth is
Figure 5. B&shmo'cesdermatitidL~,showing considerable variatiou in size and the characteristic wide base
:~ttachmel]t it] budding organisms. (Silver chromate stain. •
L' , ~~ t. . ." ~
, 9 ~9 w,"
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-" 9
:. . . .
".',
".... 9 ,. -, . '.", : ~....,~:~..- ..-~."
.-~,: ~. 7 ~ 7.
9 . 9 ~ :. "~ . 7 ~ . , , ~ ; " " .- . ...-. t,.,'~'. .... .:.
17, .. . .
~:~ '. :. ~ , ' , . '~. ' ~ "a,., :; , , ' . . . ' i ~ 99 , / . ',..;:..":~ . ' ~ '. ~ ..
12. Karlson, A. G.: Personal conununication. teria in tissue sections: A reliable Gram stain
13. Corpe, R. F., and Stergus, 1.: Is the histopatholo- method. Am. J. Clin. l'athol., 60:23-t, 1973.
gy of nonphotochromogeific m)cobacterial 16. Robboy, S. J., and Vickery, A. L., Jr.: Tinctorial
infections distinguishable from that caused b)" and morphologic properties distinguishing
Mycobacterium tuberculosis? Am. Rex'. Respir. actinomycosis and nocardiosis. New Engl. J.
Dis., 87:289, 1963. Med., 282:593, 1970.
14. Crow, ti. E., King, C. T., Smith, C. E., Corpe, R. 17. Anthony, I'. P.: A gukle to the histological identi-
F., and Stergns, I.: A limited clinical, pathologic, fication of fungi in tissues. J. Clin. l'athol., 26:
and epidemiologic study of patients with pul- 828, 1973.
monary lesions associated with ntypical acid- 18. Hodgkin, J. E., Andersen, H. A., and Rosenow,
fast bacilli in the sputum. Am. Rex'. Tuberc., E. C., llI: Diagnosis of Pneumoc~'stis rarinii
75:199, 1957. pneumonia by transbronchoscopic hmg biopsy.
15. Brown, R. C., and llopps, II. C.: Staining ofbac- Chest, 64:551, 1973.
149