Urinalysis and Body Fluids 6th Edition by Majorie DiLorenzo, Susan Strasinger

Exercise 17

Vaginal specimens collected for a saline wet prep should be:

A. Refrigerated to preserve motility

B. Prepared as soon as possible

C. Mailed to a reference laboratory

D. Preserved with potassium hydroxide

Step 1 of 2

Saline wet preparation:

Saline wet mount examination is considered as the gold standard method.

• The wet preparation involves observation of vaginal discharge by wet mount microscope

• Saline wet amount is utilized to count the number, and type of epithelial cells and to notice presence of clumping of epithelial cells, and budding yeast cell in vaginal fluid

• The specimen to be examined through saline wet preparation is prepared immediately with saline once the fresh vaginal secretion are obtained

• Careful microscopic examination of fresh vaginal secretion is essential to detect causative agent of each syndrome, and to give appropriate treatment to the patients

Therefore, vaginal specimen collected for saline wet prep should be “prepared as soon as possible”. Hence, the correct answer is option .