Free ABMM Mock Exam – Practice Online Confidently

A clinical trial is evaluating the efficacy of a new antifungal agent against invasive aspergillosis. Serum galactomannan levels are being used as a biomarker to monitor the infection. A decrease in galactomannan levels during treatment would indicate: 

Which biosafety level (BSL) is required for clinical laboratory work involving the propagation (culture) of Coccidioides immitis/posadasii? 

An acid-fast bacillus isolate recovered from a respiratory specimen after 3 weeks of incubation on LöwensteinJensen medium is initially non-pigmented when grown in the dark. After exposure to light for several hours, the colonies develop a distinct yellow-orange pigment. This organism is classified as a:

A Gram-positive rod is isolated from the blood culture of a neonate with sepsis. The organism exhibits weak beta-hemolysis on sheep blood agar, is catalase-positive, hydrolyzes esculin in the presence of bile, and demonstrates characteristic "tumbling" motility in a wet mount prepared from a broth culture incubated at 25° C. Which organism is most likely? 

A patient develops a severe diarrheal illness after consuming raw seafood. Stool culture yields a Gramnegative, comma-shaped bacterium that is oxidase-positive and grows on thiosulfate-citrate-bile salts-sucrose (TCBS) agar, producing blue-green colonies. The MOST significant virulence factor contributing to the severe, cholera-like diarrhea caused by this organism is: