Question

Petrus brings his 87-year old grandmother to the emergency department where you work. His grandmother has a fever, is dehydrated and confused, and complains of pain when urinating. Petrus reports that she has not been eating or drinking, but she has no signs or symptoms of gastrointestinal distress. You request blood samples and also a urine sample. You decide to keep Petrus' grandmother in the hospital so that she can be given intravenous fluids. You also want to wait for the lab test results before you decide whether she required additional treatment or if she can return home.

1. When Petrus' grandmother's test results are sent to you, you discover that while her blood work is normal, her urine has Gram-negative bacilli in it. Based on this, you know that the cells are:______.
a) stained blue and are cylindrical in shape.
b) stained purple and are cylindrical in shape.
c) stained pink and are spherical in shape.
d) stained pink and are cylindrical in shape.
e) stained green and are oval in shape.
2. Petrus asks you what the Gram-negative result means and you explain that the bacteria causing his grandmother's UTI:____.
a) have a thin cell wall and an outer membrane which makes the cells less sensitive to the antibiotic penicillin.
b) have a thick cell wall and an outer membrane which makes the cells less sensitive to the antibiotic penicillin.
c) have no cell wall but they have a thick outer membrane which makes the cells less sensitive to the antibiotic penicillin.
d) have a thin cell wall and an inner cell membrane which makes the cells less sensitive to penicillin.
e) have no cell wall which makes the cells more sensitive to the antibiotic penicillin.

Answer 1

d) stained pink and are cylindrical in shape.

b) have a thick cell wall and an outer membrane which makes the cells less sensitive to the antibiotic penicillin.

Step-by-step explanation:

Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain. So they stain in pink and they have an outer cell membrane unlike gram positive bacteria.