Aspergillus is a ubiquitous mold found throughout the world in air, soil, water, and decaying vegetation. It is an opportunistic pathogen causing infections mainly in people with impaired immunity (people living with HIV/AIDS, having chronic […]
Early diagnosis of fungal infection is critical for effective treatment. For many decades, culture, direct microscopy, and histopathology have been the foundation for the diagnosis of fungal infections. Severely immunosuppressed patient population is continuously growing […]
Staibs medium also known as Bird seed agar is a selective and differential medium for isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans from clinical specimens and differentiation of it from other Cryptococcus species. Due to the presence of […]
Histoplasma capsulatum is an intracellular, thermally dimorphic fungi (grows as a yeast in body temperature/37°C in humans, mammals or in culture media and as mold in 25°C in environment/culture media) of medical importance that can survive within macrophages […]
Cryptococcus neoformans is a yeast with prominent polysaccharide capsule. It is an opportunistic fungal pathogen notoriously known as the most common cause of fungal meningitis (infection and inflammation of the meninges) in immuno-compromised patients (such as people with […]
Potassium hydroxide (KOH) preparation is used for the rapid detection of fungal elements in clinical specimen, as it clears the specimen making fungal elements more visible during direct microscopic examination. KOH is a strong alkali. When […]
Candida albicans is an endogenous organism, found in 40 to 80% of normal human beings as commensal in gastrointestinal tract, oropharynx . It is a commonest cause of candidiasis (moniliasis). Candida albicans is gram positive yeast with […]
Germ tube test is the confirmatory test for Candida albicans. Germ tube formation was first reported by Reynolds and Braude and hence the germ tube test is also known as Reynolds-Braude Phenomenon. This is a […]
Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) is a selective medium primarily used for the isolation of dermatophytes, other fungi and yeasts but can also grow filamentous bacteria such as Nocardia. The acidic pH of this medium (pH about […]
The lactophenol cotton blue (LPCB) wet mount preparation is the most widely used method of staining and observing fungi and is simple to prepare. The preparation has three components: Phenol: kills any live organisms; Lactic […]
Two general types of culture media are essential to ensure the primary recovery of all clinically significant fungi from clinical specimens. One medium should be non-selective (such as Brain Heart Infusion Agar; i.e., one that will permit […]
If you observe a probable fungus in the culture plate, colony characteristics are first assessed to determine the broad group of the isolate. Once the initial observations are made, following microscopic criteria are used to make a […]
Copyright © 2019 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes