American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Technologist in Cytogenetics certification (ASCP CG) Practice Test

What should be done if a culture shows signs of contamination after just one day?

1. Incubate the culture for another day

2. Report to the laboratory director

3. Harvest the culture quickly

4. Change the incubation environment

The correct answer is: Harvest the culture quickly

When a culture shows signs of contamination after just one day, the appropriate action to take is to harvest the culture quickly. This is because prompt intervention is necessary to minimize the impact of the contamination on the results. Harvesting the culture allows for the collection of any viable cells or organisms present before they are potentially overrun by contaminants, which could obscure the results or make further analysis impossible. In this context, waiting another day to incubate the culture could result in a worse contamination scenario, making it difficult to extract useful data. Reporting to the laboratory director is an important step in managing laboratory processes and safety, but immediate action to preserve the sample quality takes precedence. Changing the incubation environment might also not resolve the issue if contamination has already occurred. The key in this scenario is to act quickly and effectively to mitigate the effects of the contamination.