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The Clinical Microbiology laboratory at Hennepin County
Medical Center provides a full range of services in diagnostic
microbiology, performing approximately 150,000 tests annually. Rapid
reporting of significant bacterial isolates is facilitated by use of a
continuous monitoring blood culture instrument and an automated identification
and susceptibility testing system; both of these systems are scheduled
to be upgraded by 2002. The mycobacteriology
section utilizes nucleic-acid probe technology to rapidly identify acid-fast
bacilli isolated in culture, performs nucleic-acid amplification testing
to directly identify M. tuberculosis in clinical specimens, and offers
antimicrobial susceptibility testing for M. tuberculosis. Antifungal susceptibility
testing of Candida sp. is performed in the mycology
section, as is direct fluorescent antibody staining for detection of Pneumocystis
carinii. In addition to routine ova and parasite examination, and blood
film examination for malaria, the parasitology
section offers enzyme immunoassay testing for rapid detection of infection
with Giardia lamblia. The virology
laboratory offers both conventional and shell-vial culture for recovery
of all major cultivatable pathogenic viruses, and also performs rapid
antigen detection assays during the respiratory virus season. |
