Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

Discarding the specimen collection swab directly at point of care improves optimization of automated molecular diagnosis of sexually transmissible microorganisms without changing results

Joint Event on 4^th World Congress and Expo on Applied Microbiology & 2^nd International Conference on Food Microbiology

November 29-December 01, 2017 Madrid, Spain

Camporese A, Avolio M, Bruschetta G and Grosso S

Director, Microbiology and Virology Department Pordenone Regional Hospital (Italy)

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Microb Biochem Technol

Abstract:

The liquid-based microbiology (LBM) system consists of a polypropylene screw-cap tube with liquid transport medium and a specimen collection swab which has a tip flocked with soft nylon fiber. Usually, after the sample collection, the swab is inserted to the bottom of the tube and the swab shaft is broken at the marked, molded break point. We observed that the presence of the swab itself may interfere with automated platforms working from primary tube, thus often, in laboratory practice, the user have to extract and discard manually the applicator from the tube before loading into a machine. In order to avoid this aimless and time consuming handling of the sample we compared, in terms of molecular results reproducibility, the discard of specimen collection swab, after swirling into its medium, directly at point of care, with its placing into and vortexing on arrival in the laboratory. UTMTM, an LBM specific device (Copan SpA, Brescia, Italy) was used to collect and transport 169 endocervical samples for molecular investigations. Each of the 169 samples was sent to laboratory either by removing the probe directly at the point of care, either by leaving the probe into the tube. The Microlab Nimbus IVD system was used for the DNA automated extraction (Hamilton, Reno, NV, USA). Real-time PCR amplification was performed with the AnyplexTM II STI-7 Detection Assay (Seegene, Seoul, Korea), an automated assay for simultaneous amplification, detection and differentiation by multiplex real-time PCR of DNA of 7 sexually transmitted microorganisms, and the CFX96 real-time thermocycler (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA). Results obtained with the immediate specimen collection swab elimination at point of care were compared with those obtained with specimen collection swab elimination at the arrival on laboratory. 91 out of 169 (53.8%) patients examined had positive result and at least one of seven microorganism targets in their genital tract, sometimes in association with other organisms, distributed as follows: Chlamydia trachomatis (4), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (1), Trichomonas vaginalis (1), Mycoplasma genitalium (1), Mycoplasma hominis (8), Ureaplasma urealyticum (18) and Ureaplasma parvum (58). Our results show that discarding the specimen collection swab just after swirling into its transport medium yields the same results as leaving the swab into until arrival at the laboratory. Discarding the specimen collection swab directly at point of care can simplify all handling procedures, thus reducing risk of contamination. Furthermore this new strategy allows to standardize and optimize all subsequent steps after the arrival of the sample in the laboratory, thus improving flexibility and extensive automated processing with molecular platforms working from primary tubes.

Biography :

Camporese A is the Director of Microbiology and Virology Department, Greater Pordenone Area Central Laboratory, in the North East of Italy. He is author of more than 100 scientific papers and more than 200 communications in national and international conferences.