Cholera laboratory tests
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [2]
Overview
Choleria is a severe bacterial gastrointestinal, diarrheal disease. In its most severe forms, cholera is one of the most rapidly fatal illnesses known. A healthy person may become hypotensive within an hour of the onset of symptoms and may die within 2-3 hours if no treatment is provided. More commonly, the disease progresses from the first liquid stool to shock in 4-12 hours, with death following in 18 hours to several days without rehydration treatment.[1][2]
Lab tests
Stool and swab collected in the acute stage of the disease are useful specimens for laboratory diagnosis. A number of special media have been employed for the cultivation for Cholera vibrios. They are classified as follows:
Holding or transport media
- Venkataraman-ramakrishnan (VR) medium
- Cary-Blair medium: This the most popularly carrying media. This is a buffered solution of sodium chloride, sodium thioglycollate, disodium phosphate and calcium chloride at pH 8.4.
Enrichment media
- Alkaline peptone water at pH 8.6
- Monsur's taurocholate tellurite peptone water at pH 9.2
Plating media
- Alkaline bile salt agar: The colonies are very similar to those on Nutrient Agar.
- Monsur's gelatin Tauro cholate trypticase tellurite agar (GTTA) medium: Cholera vibrios produce small translucent colonies with a greyish black centre.
- TCBS medium: This the mostly widely used medium. This medium contains thiosulphate, citrate, bile salts and sucrose. Also in oysters and lobster in some cases. Cholera vibrios produce flat 2-3 mm in diameter, yellow nucleated colonies.