Question

Specimen preservation and storage: Stool for culture is transported in special transport media, e.g., - transport medium, if specimen can't be cultured within 2hr of collection.

a) Amies Charcoal
b) Stuart
c) Cary Blair
d) GN

Answer 1

The correct transport medium for stool specimens that cannot be cultured within 2 hours of collection is Cary Blair medium, which helps preserve viable pathogens by maintaining a stable pH during long-term storage or transport.

Step-by-step explanation:

When transporting stool specimens for culture analysis, it is important to maintain the viability of the sample, especially if it cannot be cultured within 2 hours of collection. To preserve these samples for long-term storage or during transport, special transport media are used.

One such transport medium designed for stool samples is Cary Blair medium, which is preferred because it helps to keep the pathogens in stool specimens viable by preserving them at a stable pH. Specimens that require ultra-low temperatures for preservation are stored at around -70 °C or even lower, using dry ice or in special liquid nitrogen tanks, which maintain temperatures below -196 °C. For bacterial cultures, it's essential to follow procedures like enrichment cultures, using selective media to grow and identify specific pathogens, ensuring that they can be analyzed correctly even after transport or storage.