The Clinical Microbiology Laboratory has recently changed its protocol for screening and reporting throat cultures. Streptococcus equisimili s has been documented to cause similar symptoms and sequelae to Group A Strep. As a result, the lab will now routinely screen all throat cultures for Group A beta strep as well as S equisimilis . No change in ordering or specimen collection is necessary.
Many organisms require special processing in order to obtain growth.
For example, Malassezia spp. Therefore, communication with the laboratory is essential. The use of blood culture bottles for sterile body fluid culture is not recommended. If fluids are submitted for culture in blood culture bottles, they will not be gram stained. No quantitation can be made if growth becomes evident.