Amies liquid swab
Surgically sterile invasive device for sample collection by direct patient contact with transport medium.
The kit consists of:
• A sterile, round-bottomed, 13 x 165 mm tube made of rigid, non-deformable polypropylene. The tube contains the liquid transport medium.
• A swab with a polystyrene support (slightly flexible under pressure, can be cut with scissors) and a viscose head, fitted with a safety cap that seals the tube hermetically once the sample is taken (blue polyethylene cap).
• A label that seals the cap and the tube. It is intended to write on it: the name of the patient, the date and time of the sample collection, number, doctor, nature of the sample and the name of the hospital.
• The expiry date, batch number, product description and brand are also indicated.
• All of this is packaged in a peel-pack (see design) of 38 x 210 mm, on which the batch number,
expiration date, code, description, barcode, product brand and instructions for use are printed.
• Manufactured in a Clean Room.
Expiry date: 30 months from the date of sterilization.
A certificate of sterilization can be supplied upon request.
Transport and storage temperature: From 2ºC to 30ºC
AMIES medium is a modification of Cary Blair medium, which is a modification of Stuart medium. It basically replaces glycerophosphate with an inorganic phosphate.
It allows the survival of many microorganisms, such as:
Neisseria sp.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Haemophilus sp.
Bacteroides fragilis
Corynebacterium sp.
Trichomonas vaginalis
Streptococcus pyogenes
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Shigella flexneri
Salmonella typhi
Brucella abortus
Enterobacterias
etc.
Aerobic, anaerobic and facultative anaerobic microorganisms can survive in the medium for four or more days. On the other hand, fastidious bacteria such as Neisseria Gonorrhoeae survive for 24 hours under refrigerated conditions (4-8ºC).
In 1987, Amies included modifications in the transport medium proposed by Stuart in his publications of 1946, 1954 (together with Toshach and Patsula), and 1959.
Amies argued that the glycerophosphate used as a buffer by Stuart can favor the growth of certain Gram-negative germs and proposed changing it for a buffer made up of inorganic phosphates. He also incorporated 0.3 g% of NaCl into the medium to favor the stability of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and incorporated Ca2+ and Mg2+ salts to maintain the survival of bacterial cells.
This medium is available in agar and liquid versions.
Amies liquid transport medium is very useful for laboratories that, in addition to performing cultures, wish to stain biological samples, since semi-solid media can leave agar residues that make the interpretation of Gram stains more difficult.
