pinballdoctor

CALLIE

Thankyou for your reply.

You say you've never stained any seminal fluid, but how would you know what was on the swab?

I have had absolutely NO symptoms that would indicate an infection.

No fever, no pain, no burning, no problems of any kind.

You work in a lab, so perhaps you could answer this question for me:

After the lab report is filed, is the sample or the grams stain saved, or is it discarded? Thanks for your time. (and wisdom)

First of all, the Gram stain is targeted at the peptidoclycan of bacterial cell wall. As sperm cells do not have a cell wall, they should not be specifically stained.I am not too sure what you think the problem is. Do you mean that they only isolated E. faecalis despite the fact that a Gram positive stain was shown?

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

The problem, as I see it, is that the "fluid" is automatically assumed to be caused by a bacterial infection, when in fact it could be nothing more than seminal fluid.

 

I was under the impression that when a sample is sent to the lab, it would show the total contents in the sample, rather than just look for the presence of bacteria.

I understand about peptidoclycan, but don't understand your comment concerning sperm not having a cell wall. Without a cell wall, what would keep it "together"? Thanks again for your time. (and wisdom)

Hello everyone,

I have a very important question for a medical lab technician concerning a Gram Stain test that was done on a penile discharge swab recently. It is my understanding that gram stain is designed specifically to determine the presence of bacteria, and to determine if it is positive or negative.

My question is, would this gram stain test determine if there were any sperm present as well? The reason I ask is because I am quite sure that I was leaking a seminal fluid, even though the lab report shows gram positive cocci in clusters and chains, and under "organisms isolated", Enterococcus faecalis is listed. Is this possible? Thanks in advance for any help with this matter.