BACKGROUND The global need for disease detection and control has increased effort to engineer point-of-care (POC) tests that are simple, robust, affordable, and non-instrumented. In many POC tests, sample collection involves swabbing the site (e.g., nose, skin), agitating the swab in a fluid to release the sample, and transferring the fluid to a device for analysis. Poor performance in sample t...

Conjunctivitis is a very common presentation to general practitioners and general paediatricians. The investigation of conjunctivitis can be a significant cost to microbiology laboratories due to the high volume of samples that can be submitted, particularly from patients in the community. The key issue is to send eye swabs in clinical situations where it can make a difference to management, an...

Following revised information pertaining to newer swab types and testing protocols in the new CLSI M40-A2 standard, we evaluated three liquid swab transport systems for the recovery of aerobic, anaerobic, and fastidious organisms at room temperature and at 4°C. All tested liquid swab transport systems were fully compliant with the M40-A2 standard, with acceptable performance at both temperature...

Clinical swab heads are often coated with biopolymers to improve the recovery and survival of organisms. To assess the effect of swab head material coating, water absorption capacity and capture and release characteristics of four pathogenic bacteria from protein coated and uncoated flocked swabs were determined. Demonstration of no uniformly higher recovery of all test bacteria from coated swa...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential use of nasal, oral, and ear swabs for molecular diagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) in an endemic urban area in Brazil. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Sixty-two naturally infected and ten healthy dogs were enrolled in this study. Bone marrow aspirates, peripheral blood, skin biopsy, and conjunctival, nasal, oral, and ...

Universal surveillance upon patient admission is important in reducing the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and associated disease in hospitals. High costs for the health care system in conjunction with MRSA have promoted the development of rapid screening methods to detect MRSA carriers. This study compared two real-time PCR methods, the BD GeneOhm MRSA assay ...

no glands in the vaginal epithelium?is white, cheesy, highly acid in reaction and consists of epithelial squames, Doderlein's vaginal bacilli, some transudate and lactic acid. The lactic acid, which is responsible for the high acidity, results from the breaking down of glycogen in the vaginal epithelial cells, probably by bacterial action. These conditions are found in the vagina during reprodu...

The ability of the vagina to contract gives rise a set active mechanical properties that contribute complex function this organ in-vivo. Regional differences in morphology have been long recognized, but large heterogeneous deformations experiences during contractions never quantified. Furthermore, there is no consensus regarding contractility along two primary anatomical directions vagina: long...

BACKGROUND The vaginal microflora is important for maintaining vaginal health and preventing infections of the reproductive tract. The rectum has been suggested as the major source for the colonisation of the vaginal econiche. METHODS To establish whether the rectum can serve as a possible bacterial reservoir for colonisation of the vaginal econiche, we cultured vaginal and rectal specimens f...