Specimen Requirements

Container Type: Sterile Culturette
Specimen Type: Sterile swab
Patient Prep: Use speculum for cervical and avoid mucosal surface. Clean external urethra before collection from males.
Collection Procedure: Male: Collect urethral discharge or anterior urethral scraping. Female: Cervical swab is preferred to urethral or vaginal swab. Dacron swabs are recommended. Place in BD Culturette Plus media. A good collection is indicated by Moderate to Numerous epithelial cells on Gram Stain. If no epithelial cells, consider a false negative possibility.
Specimen Processing: Store and transport at room temperature, preferably within 8 hours of collection.
Required Patient Info Specimen source. Used for Bartholin Cyst, Labia and Penile discharge also.
Stability: Room Temp 48 hours Refrigerated N/A Frozen (-20 øC) N/A
Limitations: If testing for single pathogen only, such as N. gonorrhoeae, Group B strep or yeast, order as individual test (GCC, STS, or YST) respectively). Anaerobes should be ordered separately.