Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Quality assurance in bacteriology -- Introduction -- Definitions -- Internal quality control -- External quality assessment -- PART I: Bacteriological investigations -- Blood -- Introduction -- When and where bacteraemia may occur -- Blood collection -- Blood-culture media -- Processing of blood cultures -- Cerebrospinal fluid -- Introduction -- Collection and transportation of specimens -- Macroscopic inspection -- Microscopic examination -- Preliminary identification -- Susceptibility testing -- Urine -- Introduction -- Specimen collection -- Culture and interpretation -- Interpretation of quantitative urine culture results -- Identification -- Susceptibility tests -- Stool -- Introduction -- Etiological agents and clinical features -- Appropriate use of laboratory resources -- Collection and transport of stool specimens -- Visual examination of stool specimens -- Enrichment and inoculation of stool specimens -- Media for enteric pathogens -- Primary isolation -- Preliminary identification of isolates -- Final microbiological identification -- Serological identification -- Upper respiratory tract infections -- Introduction -- Normal flora of the pharynx -- Bacterial agents of pharyngitis -- Collection and dispatch of specimens -- Direct microscopy -- Culture and identification -- Susceptibility testing -- Lower respiratory tract infections -- Introduction -- The most common infections -- Collection of sputum specimens -- Processing of sputum in the laboratory (for non-tuberculous infections) -- Culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis -- Interpretation of cultures for M. tuberculosis -- General note on safety -- Sexually transmitted diseases -- Introduction -- Urethritis in men -- Genital specimens from women -- Specimens from genital ulcers -- Purulent exudates, wounds and abscesses -- Introduction.

Commonly encountered clinical conditions and the most frequent etiological agents -- Collection and transportation of specimens -- Macroscopic evaluation -- Microscopic examination -- Culture -- Identification -- Susceptibility testing -- Anaerobic bacteriology -- Introduction -- Description of bacteria in relation to oxygen requirement -- Bacteriology -- Antimicrobial susceptibility testing -- Introduction -- General principles of antimicrobial susceptibility testing -- Clinical definition of terms "resistant" and "susceptible": the three category system -- Indications for routine susceptibility tests -- Choice of drugs for routine susceptibility tests in the clinical laboratory -- The modified Kirby-Bauer method -- Direct versus indirect susceptibility tests -- Technical factors influencing the size of the zone in the disc-diffusion method -- Quality control -- Serological tests -- Introduction -- Quality control measures -- Serological reactions -- Serological tests for syphilis -- Febrile agglutinins tests -- Antistreptolysin O test -- Bacterial antigen tests -- PART II: Essential media and reagents -- Introduction -- Pathogens, media and diagnostic reagents -- Blood -- Cerebrospinal fluid -- Urine -- Stool -- Upper respiratory tract -- Lower respiratory tract -- Urogenital specimens for exclusion of sexually transmitted diseases -- Pus and exudates -- List of recommended media and diagnostic reagents for the intermediate microbiological laboratory -- Selected further reading -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.