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What Is a Culture?
A culture test identifies the cause of infection and allows the healthcare provider to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe medication accordingly. It can be a helpful test, but it isn’t right in every situation. Cultures require access to the infection so a sample can be taken, and the results can take longer than some other, less definitive tests.
A culture consists of the following:ContainerMediumSample
A culture consists of the following:
Culture Containers
Common containers used for cultures include Petri dishes and test tubes. Blood cultures can be used to grow bacteria inside special vials grown under certain conditions,
Culture Medium
This is the material that the organisms grow in. Different pathogens (like bacteria, fungi, and viruses) need different environments in which to grow.
There are more than 100 different types of culture media designed to provide the optimum environment for a particular organism to grow, from salt, to sugar, to minerals, to agar, a gelling agent used to make solid cultures.
The Sample
A culture must include a tissue or fluid sample suspected of being infected. This may be obtained with a minimally invasive superficial scraping of a skin infection or a throat infection, or with a standard blood sample. But sometimes an invasive procedure, such asa biopsyor alumbar puncture, is needed to obtain the sample.
When a healthcare provider orders a culture, they have to specify the type of organism suspected. Sometimes this is easy: such as a bacterial culture on anabscessor a viral culture on a genital ulcer that looks likeherpes. When it’s not as clear what type of organism is involved, the provider may order several types of cultures, like a viral culture and a fungal culture for anunusual-looking rash.
If the culture identifies the organism, the organism might be exposed to different medications to see which ones are most effective.This is known as determining the sensitivity of the organism.
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Types of Cultures
There are three types of cultures: solid, liquid, and cell.
Cultures can be useful for identifying an infectious organism, as well as determining the type of treatment that’s most likely to eradicate the infection. Sometimes, a culture is obtained, and then treatment is started before the results are ready. If needed, the treatment can be adjusted based on the culture test results.
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2 Sources
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Hematian A, Sadeghifard N, Mohebi R, Taherikalani M, Nasrolahi A, Amraei M, Ghafourian S.Corrigendum to “Traditional and modern cell culture in virus diagnosis”[Osong Public Health Res Perspect2016;7(2):77-82].Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2020 Aug;11(4):266. doi:10.24171/j.phrp.2020.11.4.18
“Culture.” Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 31st Ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 2007.“Culture.” Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, 28th Ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. 469.
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