You Are Working in a Clinical Laboratory in a Hospital

Multiple Choice

You are working in a clinical laboratory in a hospital setting. You're handed a throat swab from a patient. You are told specifically that the physician is only interested in what Gram positive cells are present. What might you do first to go about working towards this goal? Identification isn't the main goal here-just a first step to work towards determining what Gram positive cells might be there.

A) Perform a Gram stain.
B) Streak the sample for isolation on a tryptic soy agar general purpose medium plate.
C) Streak the sample for isolation on a medium that is selective for Gram positive cells while suppressing Gram negative cell growth.
D) Grow the microbes on the swab by inoculating a tryptic soy broth liquid medium tube.
E) Perform an acid-fast stain.