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Impact of Freezing on the Future Utility of Archived Surveillance Culture Specimens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Heather P. Green
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland Association of Public Health Laboratories, Silver Spring, Maryland
Judith A. Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System, Baltimore, Maryland
Jon P. Furuno
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Sandra M. Strauss
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Eli N. Perencevich
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System, Baltimore, Maryland
Ebbing Lautenbach
Affiliation:
Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia
Anthony D. Harris*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System, Baltimore, Maryland
*
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 100 North Greene St., Lower Level, Baltimore, Maryland 21201 (aharris@epi.umaryland.edu)

Abstract

The ability to recover bacteria from frozen culture specimens has important implications. The purpose of this study was to validate the utility of frozen specimens for recovery of several gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial species by culture. Results demonstrate that 98% of 250 bacterial isolates identified on initial culture were subsequently recovered by culture of frozen specimens after a median storage period of 564 days.

Type
Concise Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2007

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