Clinical Bacteriology

• FAWAD MAHMOOD
• M.Phil. Medical Laboratory Sciences
 Bacteriology

• Bacteriology is a branch of microbiology that is concerned with the

study of bacteria .
• It's a field in which bacteriologists study and learn more about the
various characteristics such as structure, genetics, biochemistry and
ecology etc) of bacteria as well as the mechanism through which
they cause diseases in humans and animals.
Clinical Microbiology
Clinical microbiology is the study of microbes, which cause
infection in humans.

Clinical Bacteriology deals with the isolation and identification

of bacterial pathogens, (those who are capable of producing
disease).
 Vocabulary
Aerobic – required oxygen.

Anaerobic – growing only in the absence of oxygen.

Bacillus – rod-shaped bacterium

Coccus – spherical bacterium

Colony - defined mass of bacteria assumed to assumed to have grown form a single organism

Communicable – able to be transmitted directly of indirectly from one individual to another.

Culture – The process of growing microorganisms in the laboratory.

DNA – Nucleic acid found manily in the nucleus of all living cells that carries genetic information;

deoxyribonucleic acid.
Fastidious organism – organism that requires special nutritional factors to survive.

Fission – asexual reproduction of a microorganism.

Formalin – solution of formaldehyde used as a fixative of preservative.

Gram-negative – designation for bacteria that lose the crystal violet (purple stain) and

retain the safranin (red stain) in the Gram stain procedure.

Gram-positive – designation for bacteria that retain the crystal violet( purple stain) in

the Gram stain procedure.

Gram stain – differential stain used to classify bacteria.

Immunoassay – diagnostic method using antigen-antibody reactions.

Infection – pathological condition caused by growth of microorganisms.

Medium – substance used to provide nutrients for growing microorganisms.

Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) – minimum concentration of an antibiotic

required to inhibit the growth of a microorganism.

Normal flora – microorganisms normally present at a specific site.

Opportunistic pathogen – microorganisms that causes disease in host only when
normal defense mechanisms are impaired or absent

Pathogen – organism or agent capable of causing disease in a host.

Progeny – offspring

RNA – nucleic acid found in all living cells that is that is important in protein
synthesis; ribonucleic acid.

Spirochetes – motile bacteria with a helical or spiral shape.

Zone of inhibition – in the antibiotic susceptibility test, the area around an antibiotic
disk that contains no bacterial growth.

Acute- consisting of sever symptoms and a short course

• Antibiotic- an agent that kills or suppresses the growth bacteria
• Convalescent serum- is the serum of person who has recovered
from an infection .It contains the antibodies against the
microbes that caused the infection
• Pathogenicity- is a ability of microorganism to cause a disease