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 the presence and type of Gram positive cells. Identification isn't the main goal here-just a first step to work towards determining what Gram positive cells might be there. What might you do first to go about working towards this goal?

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.
D) Grow the microbes on the swab by inoculating a tryptic soy broth liquid medium tube.
E) Perform an acid-fast stain.