Specimen Requirements

Body fluids; abscess drainage; CSF; respiratory; tissue; urine; cutaneous (skin, hair, nails) Body Fluids/Abscess/Drainage: Syringe or sterile container
 

• CSF: Minimum 1 cc spinal fluid in sterile container
• Respiratory: Sterile container
• Cutaneous (skin, hair, nails): Sterile dry container (urine cup, Petri dish, between clean glass slides taped closed)
• Tissue: Sterile saline container
• Urine: Sterile container
• Body Fluids/Abscess/Drainage: Aspirate and submit capped syringe or place in sterile container.
• CSF: Collected by physician.
• Sputum: Collect 1st morning, deep cough specimen.  24 hour collections are unacceptable.
• Tissue: Collect biopsy and send to laboratory in sterile saline.

Urine: Collect mid-stream urine, preferably early morning
specimen, into a sterile container.

Sterile Collection Cup

Cutaneous: Skin - Clean surface with 70% alcohol.  Scrape active margin of lesions with a sterile
scalpel or edge of clean glass slide. Place epidermal scrapings between glass slides that are then taped closed, or in sterile dry tube, or Petri dish if there is adequate sample.

Hair - No cleaning of scalp is necessary.  Remove at least 10 hairs with forceps from infected area.  Scrape scalp in areas where hair is broken off.  Space specimen in sterile container (urine cup, Petri dish).

Nails - Clean with 70% alcohol.  Scrape the outer surface of infected area and discard scrapings.  Scrape deeper portion for culture.  Remove a portion of debris from under nail.  Collect nail clippings or whole nail if removed. 

Place all material in a sterile urine cup or Petri dish.

Swab: Not recommended for most fungus cultures.  Use culturette swab.  Send to laboratory within 24 hours.