Question

A 75-year-old man, Tony G., presented to the emergency room with fever, shortness of breath, chest pain, and severe, extremely productive cough. Tony had been a heavy smoker for almost 50 years before he quit 7 years ago, when he was diagnosed with emphysema. Tony occasionally used oxygen at home when he had difficulty breathing, and on presentation he was using portable oxygen because of his severe respiratory distress. A chest x-ray revealed a right lower lobe infiltrate, and Tony was admitted to the hospital. Sputum, urine, and blood cultures were collected.
The direct Gram's stain of the sputum specimen revealed the following:

Many neutrophils (>25 per low-power field) Rare squamous epithelial cells (<1 per-low-power field)
Many gram-positive lancet-shaped diplococci and cocci in short chains (>25 per oil immersion field)
Few gram-negative diplococci (<10 per oil immersion field)
Few gram-positive bacilli (<10 per oil immersion field)

After overnight incubation at 35C in 5% to 7% co, a blood-agar plate inoculated with the specimen revealed a mixture of two colony type. Rare, non-hemolytic, tiny, white, dry-looking colonies were present. A predominance of small, wet-looking, convex (crater-form), entire-edged colonies were also seen, with a greening of the medium around them. The urine culture showed no growth at 24 hours. All blood cultures were negative after 5 days incubation.

Required:
a. Based on the direct Gram's stain, what is the quality of this sputum specimen?
b. Is this specimen of acceptable quality to provide clinically relevant information?

Answer 1

Answer: He either has pneumonia or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Explanation: