Suitable for ear, nose, throat, and eye cultures.

• Regular aluminum wire shaft
• Rayon mini tip
• Orange cap

A single sterile soft rayon swab on a straight aluminum wire with a round bottom plastic tube containing 5 ml of modified Amies with charcoal semi-solid transport medium. Charcoal may not be suitable for preparing gram stain slides. Suitable for ear, nose, throat, and eye cultures. Also male urethral samples for Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

The 'Venturi' (hourglass) design locks in the media and specimen, prevents shifting of media, prevents exposure to air, packaged in a clear oxygen barrier wrapper, keeps out oxygen, tamper-evident seal.

Amies media is Stuart's original media formula modified by replacing the glycerophosphate in the original formula for an inorganic phosphate buffer. The metabolism of glycerophosphate by coliform organisms and other Gram-negative rods, in Stuart's original formulation, resulted in proliferation of these organisms from throat, wound and fecal specimens. Amies also found that NaCl at 0.3% w/v was optimal for the preservation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Calcium and magnesium salts were added in the belief that these ions were of importance in controlling the permeability of the bacterial cells and contributed to their survival.