Palestine polytechnic University

Faculty of Medicine

Selection a media for cultivation: urine and blood

samples

Student's name: Yazeed Saleem abdulkareem

Student's id: 190145
Student's class number: 5
original time: Monday (2-4)
Teacher's name: M. aya ghanaym
Q1) When to do urine culture and blood culture ?

urine culture may be ordered when there are signs and symptoms of a urinary tract infection
UTI (a strong, frequent urge to urinate or Pain and/or a burning sensation during urination,
Cloudy, strong-smelling urine), or the results of a urinalysis show that the patient may have a
UTI. Early in pregnancy, pregnant women with no symptoms should be checked with a urine
culture "to confirm that there are no bacteria."

Blood culture ordered when a person suspected to have blood infection or has signs and
symptoms of sepsis, which indicates that bacteria, fungi, or their toxic by-products are causing
harm in the body.

Then we can detect the cause of infection and treat it by the appropriate antibiotic.

Q2) Which is a sample required for urine culture and blood culture ?

For blood culture multiple blood samples are usually collected for testing and from different
veins to increase the likelihood of detecting the bacteria or fungi that may be present in small
numbers or may enter the blood intermittently.

For urine culture: a few ounces of urine; the most common type of sample obtained is a mid-
stream clean catch urine sample. Before collecting urine, the genital region must be cleaned.
Urine can also be aspirated directly from the bladder using a catheter or, in rare cases, a needle.
To gather any urine produced by infants, a collecting bag can be attached to the genital region.
Q3) Write the result of culture and calculate cfu/ml with count interpretation , and please
attach picture.

M 1:
Blood agar. MacConky agar.

Figure1 figure2
M2:

Figure3 figure4
Growth on MacConky agar in m1 indicates the presence of gram negative bacteria in the
urine sample, whereas growth on blood agar indicates the presence of gram positive
bacteria in the sample. As we see in (figure1+ figure2) both have more than 10 colonies
so there are more than 10000 cfu/ml in the plate.
There is no growth in the MacConky agar in m2, indicating that there are no gram
negative bacteria in the urine sample, but there is growth in the blood agar, indicating that
the bacteria is gram positive(figure3). There are more than 10 colonies so there are more
than 10000 cfu/ml in the plate.

Q4) Why is skin contamination such a big problem in blood culture test?

Hair follicles, sebaceous glands, and the deeper layers of the epidermis can serve as a habitat for
microorganisms (normal flora) o if the blood collection was wrongly done or the area of
venipuncture was not sterile it will contaminate the specimen and false positive is result then
administration of unnecessary antibiotics and wasting of hospital resources. The worst will occur
when organisms in the skin will enter the blood and turned to pathogen and may cause a
serious problem to the patient.

Q5) What are the four reasons a blood culture result can be a false positive?

It depends on contamination

• Poor blood culture collection technique or contamination during cultivation from skin or
air drop

• Presence of bacteria in the keratin layer of the skin so disinfectors can not reach them

• Insufficient disinfection of the skin or re palpating site of puncture after disinfection

• Collection of blood from an indwelling vascular catheter or contaminated materials

• Conditions like acute lukemia and hypercapnia and acidosis.

Refrences:

1- Turan, D.B., Kuruoğlu, T., Gümüş, D., Kalaycı, F., & Şerefhanoğlu, K. (2018). Evaluation
of Factors that may Cause False Positive Growth Signals in Blood Cultures-As the Word
'Factors' will Include Both Microbial and Patients as well as Others. International Journal
of Clinical & Medical Microbiology.

2- What Causes False Positives? Understanding Blood Culture Contamination | Microbiology

(labroots.com)