FREE Medical Laboratory Technician Clinical Microbiology Questions and Answers Flashcards
6 cards from real Medical Laboratory Technician Exam practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 FREE Medical Laboratory Technician Clinical Microbiology Questions and Answers flashcards as text
A CSF Gram stain from a neonate reveals Gram-positive short rods. Which organism should be suspected and what confirmatory test is characteristic?
Answer: Listeria monocytogenes confirmed by tumbling motility at 25 degrees C
Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive rod that causes neonatal meningitis and demonstrates characteristic tumbling motility when grown at room temperature.
Which selective and differential medium is used to isolate Neisseria gonorrhoeae from specimens containing mixed flora?
Answer: Modified Thayer-Martin agar
Modified Thayer-Martin agar contains vancomycin, colistin, nystatin, and trimethoprim to suppress normal flora while supporting growth of pathogenic Neisseria.
An anaerobic blood culture grows Gram-positive rods that produce a double zone of hemolysis on blood agar. What is the most likely organism?
Answer: Clostridium perfringens
Clostridium perfringens characteristically produces a double zone of hemolysis due to alpha and theta toxins and is associated with gas gangrene.
A sputum culture from an immunocompromised patient grows a mucoid, non-lactose-fermenting Gram-negative rod that produces a grape-like odor and is oxidase-positive. Which organism is identified?
Answer: Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an oxidase-positive, non-lactose-fermenting Gram-negative rod known for its grape-like odor and production of blue-green pigments.
Which fungal organism appears as large, broad-based budding yeast cells in a KOH preparation of lung tissue from a patient in the Ohio River Valley?
Answer: Blastomyces dermatitidis
Blastomyces dermatitidis produces large thick-walled yeast with characteristic broad-based buds and is endemic to the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys.
What is the primary purpose of performing an antimicrobial susceptibility test using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method?
Answer: To determine if an organism is susceptible, intermediate, or resistant to specific antibiotics
The Kirby-Bauer method measures zones of inhibition around antibiotic disks on Mueller-Hinton agar to categorize organisms as susceptible, intermediate, or resistant based on CLSI breakpoints.