When microbiologists encounter a sputum specimen, they know that the upper respiratory tract contains many indigenous organisms and to identify every organism in the culture would be a time-consuming, cost-prohibitive, and insurmountable task.So microbiologists must:
A)work quickly with commercially available kits to identify all organisms present in a sputum specimen for the best quality patient care available.
B)work up only the gram-negative rods present in the culture.
C)differentiate the potential pathogens from the "usual" inhabitants of the upper respiratory tract and direct the diagnostic workup only to potential pathogens.
D)be able to ascertain whether the results generated by a commercial or automated system correlate with the suspected organism.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The microbiologist must go through a mental catalog of all the organisms on the plate to differentiate between the indigenous organisms and the pathogenic organisms.Then, the pathogenic organisms are the only organisms that need to be identified and worked up for antimicrobial susceptibility testing.

When Microbiologists Encounter a Sputum Specimen, They Know That the Upper