Sampling (medicine)

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In medicine, sampling is gathering of matter from the body to aid in the process of a medical diagnosis and/or evaluation of an indication for treatment, further medical tests or other procedures. In this sense, the sample is the gathered matter, and the sampling tool or sampler is the person or material to collect the sample.

Sampling is a prerequisite for many

By sampling technique

• Obtaining excretions or materials that leave the body anyway, such as
  vomitus, by direct collection as they exit. A sample of saliva
  can also be collected from the mouth.
• Excision (cutting out), a surgical method for the removal of solid or soft tissue samples.
• Puncture (also called centesis) followed by aspiration is the main method used for sampling of many types of tissues and body fluids. Examples are
  capillary blood sampling
  .
• Scraping or swiping. In a
  Epithelial cells for DNA testing
  can be obtained by swiping the inside of a cheek in a mouth with a swab.

• Solid tissue, such as in
  bone marrow biopsy
• Soft tissue, such as in a muscle biopsy
• Body fluids such as blood

Body fluid sampling

Body fluid sampling includes:

• Blood sampling for any blood test, including:
  • arterial blood gas
    analysis.
  • diabetic monitoring for glucose
    .
  • phlebotomists who are specifically trained in venipuncture. Such samples are commonly collected in capped test tubes
    , often with a small amount of some sort of preservative.
• Cerebrospinal fluid sampling, generally by lumbar puncture
• thoracocentesis
• Amniotic fluid sampling, generally by amniocentesis
• peritoneocentesis (also called laparocentesis). It can be used for cytology to detect spread of gynecologic cancers
  .

The sampled matter can be analyzed for various components, for example:^{[citation needed]}

• Electrolytes
• Proteins
• cells, such as white blood cells in blood sampling
• Microbiological agents, such as bacteria or fungi

Microbiological sampling

Microbiological sampling include:

• Blood sampling for blood cultures, performed similarly as that for tests on the fluid itself above
• Throat swab for throat culture. It is performed by applying a cotton swab to the surface of the throat.
• Sampling of
  lungs for sputum culture. It can be performed by special techniques of coughing, or by a protected specimen brush (PSB),^[1]
  which is a brush that can be retracted into a plastic tube to prevent contamination of bacteria in the throat while inserting and removing the instrument.