These 12 varieties of mini-tip swabs with wire shafts can be used for ear, nose, throat, and eye swab sampling during the respiratory season.
Media choices for the BD BBL CultureSwab and CultureSwab Plus Collection and Transport Systems include Liquid Amies, Liquid Stuart, Amies Agar Gel and Amies Agar Gel with Charcoal.
Clinicians can choose from three varieties of wire shaft. The orange-cap design is a rigid-gauge aluminum wire, which will not bend when gentle pressure is applied, a feature that offers greater control when collecting ear, eye or throat samples. A long, tapered, soft rayon swab minimizes patient discomfort while increasing the surface area and volume of sample uptake.
The blue-capped wire shaft is an ultra-fine, flexible twisted aluminum wire, designed for delicate nasopharyngeal sampling. Its tip is formed into a Safe-Loop and coated with soft rayon. Because this wire can readily flex and bend, it ensures easy passage through the nose to the posterior wall of the nasopharynx. This applicator is recommended for collecting samples for whooping cough testing, or when seeking nasal carriers of meningococci or staphylococci.
The green-capped wire shaft blends the features of the first two for facilities that stock one, multi-purpose product. It combines some of the strength of the first variety, with enough flexibility for clinicians to bend and pre-shape the wire to best fit the anatomical site to be sampled.
The slender geometry of the mini-tip wires enables delicate sampling of areas like ENT and eye cultures in infants, which are otherwise inaccessible using regular size plastic swabs.
BD Diagnostic Systems
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Keyword: identification, swab
