title: Impact of freezing on the future utility of archived surveillance culture specimens.
abstract: The ability to recover bacteria from frozen culture specimens has important implications. The purpose of this study was to validate the utility of frozen specimens for recovery of several gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial species by culture. Results demonstrate that 98% of 250 bacterial isolates identified on initial culture were subsequently recovered by culture of frozen specimens after a median storage period of 564 days.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
authors.forename: Heather P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Judith A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Jon P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Furuno
authors.forename: Sandra M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: Eli N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Perencevich
authors.forename: Ebbing
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lautenbach
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Anthony D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D005615:Freezing; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D006095:Gram-Positive Cocci / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016106:Methicillin Resistance; D017817:Nasal Lavage Fluid / Q000382:microbiology; D012007:Rectum / Q000382:microbiology; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D020713:Vancomycin Resistance; D018440:beta-Lactam Resistance