In the clinical microbiology laboratory, blood is a critical diagnostic sample that, in the majority of cases is sterile (or is it?). However, when microbes gain access to and multiply in the bloodstream, it can result in life-threatening illness including sepsis. Mortality rates from bloodstream infection and sepsis range from 25% to 80%, killing millions of people annually. Blood cultures are a vital technology used in the microbiology laboratory to isolate and identify microbes and predict their response to antimicrobial therapy. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures, edited by Wm. Michael Dunne, Jr., and Carey-Ann D. Burnham, surveys the entire field of blood culture technology, providing valuable information about every phase of the process, from drawing samples to culture methods to processing positive cultures. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is organized around several major topics. History of blood culture methods. Details the timeline of blood culture methods from manual through automated and describes the technological development of the leading automated blood culture systems (Bactec, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK). Manual and automated blood culture methods. Critiques manual and automated methods for setting up blood cultures for adult and pediatric patients. Detection of pathogens directly from blood specimens. Describes currently available CE marked and FDA-cleared commercial tests using both phenotypic and genotypic markers, including their strengths and limitations. The workflow of culturing blood. Includes best practices from specimen collection to culture system verification, processing positive cultures for microbe identification and antibiotic susceptibility determination, along with the epidemiology of positive blood cultures and the value of postmortem blood cultures. Microorganisms in the blood. Examines the concept of a blood microbiome in healthy and diseased individuals. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is a resource that clinicians, laboratorians, lab directors, and hospital administrators will find engaging and extremely useful. If you are looking for online access to the latest clinical microbiology content, please visit www.wiley.com/learn/clinmicronow.

Gold Standard consensus-based procedures from the experts. The Clinical Microbiology Procedures Handbook, 5th edition, provides those engaged in microbial analysis of clinical specimens with procedures for the detection, identification, and characterization of microorganisms involved in human infections. This unique and valuable collection of step-by-step descriptions of the numerous testing modalities used in the clinical microbiology laboratory was written and edited by highly knowledgeable laboratorians. The 5th edition features two new sections, one on blood cultures and one on MALDI-TOF MS, and the sections on molecular diagnostics, virology, and serology were extensively revised and updated. Presented over multiple volumes, this handbook enables laboratory staff to perform all analyses, including appropriate quality control recommendations, from the receipt of the specimen through processing, testing, interpretation, presentation of the final report, and subsequent consultation. If you are looking for online access to the latest from this reference or site access for your lab, please visit www.wiley.com/learn/clinmicronow.

This unique visual reference presents more than 750 brilliant, four-color images of bacterial isolates commonly encountered in diagnostic microbiology and the methods used to identify them, including microscopic and phenotypic characteristics, colony morphology, and biochemical properties. Chapters cover the most important bacterial pathogens and related organisms, including updated taxonomy, epidemiology, pathogenicity, laboratory and antibiotic susceptibility testing, and molecular biology methodology Tables summarize and compare key biochemical reactions and other significant characteristics New to this edition is a separate chapter covering the latest developments in total laboratory automation The comprehensive chapter on stains, media, and reagents is now augmented with histopathology images A new Fast Facts chapter presents tables that summarize and illustrate the most significant details for some of the more commonly encountered organisms For the first time, this easy-to-use atlas is available digitally for enhanced searching. Color Atlas of Medical Bacteriology remains the most valuable illustrative supplement for lectures and laboratory presentations, as well as for laboratorians, clinicians, students, and anyone interested in diagnostic medical bacteriology.

London. A snowy December, 1888. Sherlock Holmes, 34, is languishing and back on cocaine after a disastrous Ripper investigation. Watson can neither comfort nor rouse his friend – until a strangely encoded letter arrives from Paris.

As a young man, Jan Verplaetse saw a hare suspended from a meat hook, skinned and gutted. What struck him so forcefully at the time was not the animal itself, but the blood gently dripping from its mouth. His reaction prompted the start of a quest he undertakes in this book: to investigate our fascination with blood, the most vital of fluids. Blood Rush shows how, throughout history, blood has had the capacity to intoxicate us, to the point that we lose ourselves, whether in violence, through hunting, fighting, or killing, or in the vicarious thrill of watching sporting events, horror films, or video games. Are these feelings physical, or in our imagination? Where does the magic of blood come from? In his deeply researched and provocative narrative, Verplaetse moves from antiquity to the present, from magic to experimental psychology, from philosophy to religion and scientific discoveries, to demonstrate why blood at once attracts and repels us.

Set during World War I, this monumental philosophical novel about human despair inspired Albert Camus' own writing and prefigured the greater existential movement. Blood Dark tells the story of a brilliant philosopher trapped in a provincial town and of his spiraling descent into self-destruction. Cripure, as his students call him—the name a mocking contraction of Critique of Pure Reason—despises his colleagues, despairs of his charges, and is at odds with his family. The year is 1917, and the slaughter of the First World War goes on and on, with French soldiers not only dying in droves but also beginning to rise up in protest. Still haunted by the memory of the wife who left him long ago, Cripure turns his fury and scathing wit on everyone around him. Before he knows it, a trivial dispute with a complacently patriotic colleague has embroiled him in a duel.

Antisepsis, Disinfection, and Sterilization: Types, Action, and Resistance, by Gerald E. McDonnell, is a detailed and accessible presentation of the current methods of microbial control. Each major category, such as physical disinfection methods, is given a chapter, in which theory, spectrum of activity, advantages, disadvantages, and modes of action of the methods are thoroughly and clearly presented. Sufficient background on the life cycles and general anatomy of microorganisms is provided so that the reader who is new to microbiology will better appreciate how physical and chemical biocides work their magic on microbes. Other topics in the book include: Evaluating the efficacy of chemical antiseptics and disinfectants, and of physical methods of microbial control and sterilization. Understanding how to choose the proper biocidal product and process for specific applications. Classic physical and chemical disinfection methods, such as heat, cold, non-ionizing radiation, acids, oxidizing agents, and metals. Newer chemical disinfectants, including, isothiazolones, micro-and nano-particles, and bacteriophages as control agents. Antisepsis of skin and wounds and the biocides that can be used as antiseptics. Classic methods of physical sterilization, such as, moist heat and dry heat sterilization, ionizing radiation, and filtration, along with newer methods, including, the use of plasma or pulsed light. Chemical sterilization methods that use ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, or a variety of other oxidizing agents. A detailed look at the modes of action of biocides in controlling microbial growth and disrupting microbial physiology. Mechanisms that microorganisms use to resist the effects of biocides. The second edition of Antisepsis, Disinfection, and Sterilization: Types, Action, and Resistance is well suited as a textbook and is outstanding as a reference book for facilities managers and application engineers in manufacturing plants, hospitals, and food production facilities. It is also essential for public health officials, healthcare professionals, and infection control practitioners.