Encyclopedia > Sputum

  Article Content

Sputum

A sputum sample is the name given to the mucus that is coughed up from the lungs. In is usually used for microbiological investigations of respiratory infections.

The best sputum samples contain very little saliva, as this contaminates the sample with oral bacteria.

When a sputum specimen is plated out, it is best to get the portion of the sample that most looks like pus[?] onto the swab. If there is any blood in the sputum, this should also be on the swab.

Microbiological sputum samples are usually used to look for infections by Branhamella catarrhalis[?], Streptococcus pneumoniae[?] and Haemophilus influenzae[?]. Other pathogens can also be found.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Shinnecock Hills, New York

... and the average family size is 3.00. In the town the population is spread out with 13.8% under the age of 18, 34.0% from 18 to 24, 17.6% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 26.5 ms