A patient comes to see you, complaining of a very sore throat. When you examine her, you find that she has a fever of 39 o C, and you observe that her throat is extremely red, with pus on her tonsils. You swab the pus and make a slide, which you then send to the clinical lab for Gram staining. The lab sends back a report in which it is noted that the slide has many long chains of round cells that have stained purple in color.
-You inform the patient that the results of the Gram stain indicate to you that the bacteria in her throat are ________ in shape, and have a ________ cell wall.
A) round; thin
B) cylindrical; thick
C) round; thick
D) spiral; thick
E) cylindrical; thin

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The description of "round cells" matches with the shape of cocci and the "purple" staining indicates a Gram-positive cell wall which is typically thick. Therefore, the bacteria in her throat are round (cocci) in shape and have a thick cell wall, which is characteristic of Gram-positive bacteria.

A Patient Comes to See You, Complaining of a Very