Eswab liquid amies

Vaginal-rectal specimens (n = 500) were collected from pregnant women at 35 to 37 weeks of gestation at the University of California, San Diego, hospitals and clinics (between 26 February and 4 May 2018) using an ESwab Liquid Amies collection and transport system (Copan Diagnostics, Murrieta, CA). The women were from the following age groups: ≤25 years (n = 61), 26 to 35 years (n = 303), and 36 to 45 years (n = 130). Specimens were directly inoculated within 24 h of collection into 5 ml of Lim enrichment broth (Todd Hewitt broth; Copan) with colistin and acid, and were incubated aerobically with 5% CO₂ for 18 to 24 h at 35 to 37°C according to standard techniques.

All swabs were obtained by trained members of the trial team under standardized conditions using a sterile drape with a circular hole with a 7 cm diameter. The thereby marked skin surrounding the catheter insertion site was swiped with a sterile flocked swab (eSwab Liquid Amies, Copan, Brescia, Italy) with a movement ten times vertically and ten times horizontally. The tip was then immersed in the swabs' prefilled 1.0 mL sterile 0.01 M phosphate buffered saline (PBS) for transport to the microbiological laboratory.
To determine the bacterial burden, samples were cultured quantitatively (native, 1:10 and 1:100 dilution) on trypticase-soy-agar plates with sheep-blood (bioMérieux, Nürtingen, Germany). After vortex mixture, cultures were incubated for 36–48 h at 35 ± 1 °C. All tests were run in duplicate. The plates were inspected by a technician and the supervising microbiologist at 18–24 and 36–48 h. Results were expressed as CFU per swab.