Includes bibliographical references and index

Organization and function of the clinical microbiology laboratory -- Diagnostic microbiology: purpose and philosophy -- Laboratory safety -- Laboratory organization and continuous quality assessment -- Managing the clinical microbiology laboratory: effective patient care in a cost-conscious environment -- Role of the microbiologist in medical practice / John Washington II -- Hospital epidemiology -- Handling clinical specimens for microbiological studies -- Selection, collection and transport of specimens for microbiological examination -- Optical methods for laboratory diagnosis of infectious disease -- Cultivation and isolation of viable pathogens -- Conventional and rapid microbiological methods for identification of bacteria and fungi -- Nontraditional methods for identification and detection of pathogens or their products -- Principles of automated methods for diagnostic microbiology -- Diagnostic immunological principles and methods -- Methods for testing antimicrobial effectiveness -- Etiological agents recovered from clinical material

(cont) Microorganisms encountered in the blood -- Microorganisms encountered in the cerebrospinal fluid -- Microorganisms encountered in the respiratory tract -- Microorganisms encountered in the gastrointestinal tract -- Microorganisms encountered in the urinary tract -- Genital and sexually transmitted pathogens -- Microorganisms encountered in wounds, abscesses, skin and soft tissue lesions -- Microorganisms encountered in solid tissue, bone, bone marrow and body fluids -- Infections of the head and neck -- Infections in the vulnerable host -- Methods for identification of etiological agents of infectious disease -- Micrococcaceae: staphylococci, micrococci and stomatococci -- Streptococci and related genera -- Aerobic gram-negative cocci (Neisseria and Moraxella Catarrhalis) -- Enterobacteriaceae -- Nonfermentative gram-negative bacilli and coccobacilli -- Gram-negative facultatively anaerobic bacilli and aerobic coccobacilli -- Vibrio and related species, Aeromonas, Plesiomonas, Campylobacter, Helicobacter and others

(cont) Spirochetes and other spiral-shaped organisms -- Aerobic or facultative spore-forming rods (Bacillus species) -- Aerobic, non-spore-forming, gram-positive bacilli -- Processing clinical specimens for anaerobic bacteria: isolation and identification procedures -- Anaerobic gram-positive bacilli -- Anaerobic gram-negative bacilli -- Anaerobic cocci -- Chlamydia, mycoplasma and rickettsia -- Unclassified or unusual but easily cultivated etiological agents of infectious disease -- New, controversial, difficult-to-cultivate, or noncultivable etiological agents of disease -- Mycobacteria -- Laboratory methods in basic virology / Richard B. Thomson, Jr. -- Laboratory methods in basic mycology / Glenn D. Roberts -- Laboratory methods for diagnosis of parasitic infections / Lynne S. Garcia