The student learns to use research methods under supervision and presents the results in a seminar and written report. Topics include mechanisms of infection, diseased states, clinical presentations, and the effect on the human host. Specimen collection and handling, isolation techniques, organism identification, clinical relevance, culture interpretation, susceptibility testing, as well as other methods used in the detection of agents responsible for infection are also covered. Students perform routine and specialized procedures in serology and cellular immunology. Lectures and individualized instruction correlate principles of clinical immunology with the laboratory tests performed.
Emphasis is on clinical usefulness and limitation of each analysis.
Clinical correlations and discussions will be part of this course. Fall or Spring semester. This course provides an introduction to a number of different areas of clinical laboratory practice. It includes six hours of didactic and practical experience in phlebotomy where students are introduced to and use Vacutainer and syringe methods and microsampling for whole blood collection. Two presentations deal with the Laboratory Information System hardware, software and operations.