256 Pages 180 Color Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    The book’s purpose is to help community-based primary care physicians and nurses, and laboratory-based microbiologists, better understand each other’s requirements in collecting and interpreting specimens, and thus to improve the quality of patient care, while saving resources and reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescription.

    The book’s structure focuses on three basic principles: deciding whether a specimen is clinically necessary; how to collect the specimen effectively, and how to interpret the laboratory report.

    Individual chapters cover all the main specimen types sent to the laboratory from primary care. At the beginning of each chapter a case scenario is used to identify critical steps in processing a particular specimen type, followed by quick action guides to assess current practice and implement necessary changes in procedure.

    The award winning author of Clinical Bacteriology (BMA student book of the year 2005) has brought together a microbiologist, a primary care physician and a specialist in infectious disease, to produce this concise, highly illustrated guide, of value alike to primary care physicians, nurses, microbiologists and medical students.

    Introduction, Cases
    Organisms and antibiotics
    The urine specimen
    The genital specimen
    The swab of the chronic leg ulcer
    Fungal scrapings of the nail apparatus (Onychomycosis), the hair and the skin
    The faecal specimen
    The eye and the respiratory tract specimen
    The serology specimen
    Infections in pregnancy
    Antibiotic guidelines in the community

    Biography

    J. Keith Struthers, Michael Weinbren, Christopher Taggart, Kjell Wiberg

    " ... a practical guide primarily for general practitioners but also for medical microbiology staff and others working in that field ... provides a good understanding of the relevant principles in this field...[Quick Action Guides] consistently present a clear path from deciding to take a specimen to interpretation of the lab report and consideration of an antibiotic regimen ... recommended for general practitioners, nurses, and medical microbiologists who want to improve their cooperation with respect to better patient care without getting lost in the mass of microbiologic expert knowledge."
    —Andreas Erich Zautner, Clinical Infectious Diseases

    " ... well written and answers many of the questions frequently asked by primary care teams. … The presentation style of this book is both delightful and engaging. The graphics and pictures are of the highest quality … ."
    —Dr. Layth Alsaffar in The Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists