CG(ASCP) EXAM QUESTIONS AND CORRECT
ANSWERS (VERIFIED AND WELL DETAILED
ANSWERS)|| (GRADED A+) LATEST UPDATE 2025/26
In which of the following situations would one suspect bacterial
contaminationculture media is turbid in appearance
The most important reason why biological safety cabinets are used instead of
horizontal laminar flow hoods in the handling of human tissues is
to protect the technologist who is processing the specimens
Which of the following chemicals is used for cryopreservation?
dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSD)
Which of the following is a buffer used in cultures?
HEPES
In order for the fragile X to be expressed in affected individuals, lymphocytes
must be grown in what type of media?
folic acid deficient
The following enzymes cab be used to dissociate Chronic Villus samples (CVS)
except for
RNAse
Which of the following is not a necessary ingredient which is added to modified
medium?
antibiotics
All of the following are factors which affect the cryopreservation except
A fast growing culture shows signs of cell death. What is a possible reason for
this?
cell confluency: too many or too few cells
collagenase, pronase, and trypsin are used to disperse tissue into single-cell
suspension. These substances are:
proteolytic enzymes
When harvesting peripheral blood cultures, asceptic technique no longer matters
following incubation with:
colcemid
Which of the following culture processes would be most useful for identifying
patients w/ fanconi anemia?
mitomycin-C stress test of peripheral blood
To avoid potential culture failure, it is important to monitor the reagents used.
Recording which of the following information will be most important when
documenting culture failure?
expiration date
The morning after being set-up, a single dish of amniotic fluid culture turns
cloudy and appears contaminated. None of the other cultures set up that day
appear contaminated. Which of the following should be done first?
,harvest the culture as soon as possible
If an amniotic fluid culture from the same sample grows well in a different
incubator, the probable cause of the culture failure is
incubator failure
Positive staining w/ Hoechst 33258 reveals micronuclei. Which of the following
agents caused the culture contamination?
mycoplasma
Which of the following statements is true about trypsin>
is is useful in removing cells from culture flasks
Which of the following is the best tissue to use for both a good success rate and
abnormality detection in spontaneous abortion specimen
chorionic villi
When a culture becomes contaminated, the culture medium shifts to an acidic pH.
If the medium contains a pH indicator, the color of the medium in the flask will
appear
yellow
Which of the following reagents is used in culturing peripheral blood, but not in
culturing bone marrow or amniotic fluid or chromosome analysis?
phytohemagglutinin (PHA)
Which of the following is the best agent to use for the presence of mycoplasma
growth in a culture?
BM cycline
A bone marrow culture on a patient w/ APL M3 has failed to yield analyzable
metaphases. The culture had a cell density of 1x10^4 calls/ml. The specimen had
been in transit for 2 days and was not sent in a transport medium. The most likely
cause of the failure is:
too much time in transit
Which of the following microscopes should be used when cleaning a chorionic
villus specimen?
dissection
Blood specimen for chromosome analysis may be kept in culture up to how many
hours after culture initiation?
96 hours
which of the following cell types is diagnostically most problematic if present in a
CVS sample?
maternal decidua
Cells from a skin fibroblast culture are to be frozen for storage in liquid nitrogen.
The cell concentration is 2X10^7 cells/ml. How many 2ml vials can be frozen if the
final cell concentration for storage is to be 2X10^6?
5
The time that a flask culture takes to reach confluency depends on all of the
following except the
humidity of the culture environment
Which of the following is true regarding closed-system cultures?
there is less chance of microbial contamination
A blood culture for a patient
, ent diagnosed w/ Di-George syndrome fails to grow in culture. The most likely
cause of the failure is:
that an insufficient number of cells were seeded in the cultureTo maximize the
effectiveness of the biological safety cabinet, the technologist should
move his or her arms in and out slowly, perpendicular to the opening
The following solution is used to detach monolayer cells
Trypsin- EDTA
Which of the following will help prevent microbial and cross contamination of
cultures?
aseptic technique
Which of the following factors are not important for chromosome spreading?
mitotic index
A good banding pattern will be expected when we observe chromosomes before
banding under the phase scope with the following appearance:
dark
Karyotype with a del 5q
bad prognosis, frequently associated with MDS
karyotype with a t(1;7)
reciprocal translocation
heteromorphic variants are usually clinically insignificant, but can be used to
study
infertility and recurrent spontaneous abortion
What is the function of the condenser?
center the focus light on specimen
amniotic fluid has a 47,XX, +mar in one culture, but the other culture is normal.
What do you do next?
count more cells from the normal culture
What class extinguisher do you use for electric currents?
C
patient analyzed with t(15;17) found in 3 cells. The rest are normal. What do you
do next?
report preliminary results to the referring physician; this translocation is CRITICAL in the
diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)
What is the syndrome with a r(22)?
Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS): characterized by neonatal hypotonia, absent to
severely delayed speech, developmental delay, and minor dysmorphic facial features
3 year old has a karyotype of 47,XX,+15. What do you do next?
Report the diseases of trisomy 15 due to possible heart defects
Patient has BM sample with an abnormality in 8 cells. A PHA stimulated
peripheral blood is obtained with an abnormality found in 3 cells. What does this
mean?
T-lymphocytes are suppressed by the disease
You analyze an amniotic fluid and notice a marker in most of the cells. What do
you do next?
request parental studies
CLIA sends out how many proficiency testing surveys each year?
ANSWERS (VERIFIED AND WELL DETAILED
ANSWERS)|| (GRADED A+) LATEST UPDATE 2025/26
In which of the following situations would one suspect bacterial
contaminationculture media is turbid in appearance
The most important reason why biological safety cabinets are used instead of
horizontal laminar flow hoods in the handling of human tissues is
to protect the technologist who is processing the specimens
Which of the following chemicals is used for cryopreservation?
dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSD)
Which of the following is a buffer used in cultures?
HEPES
In order for the fragile X to be expressed in affected individuals, lymphocytes
must be grown in what type of media?
folic acid deficient
The following enzymes cab be used to dissociate Chronic Villus samples (CVS)
except for
RNAse
Which of the following is not a necessary ingredient which is added to modified
medium?
antibiotics
All of the following are factors which affect the cryopreservation except
A fast growing culture shows signs of cell death. What is a possible reason for
this?
cell confluency: too many or too few cells
collagenase, pronase, and trypsin are used to disperse tissue into single-cell
suspension. These substances are:
proteolytic enzymes
When harvesting peripheral blood cultures, asceptic technique no longer matters
following incubation with:
colcemid
Which of the following culture processes would be most useful for identifying
patients w/ fanconi anemia?
mitomycin-C stress test of peripheral blood
To avoid potential culture failure, it is important to monitor the reagents used.
Recording which of the following information will be most important when
documenting culture failure?
expiration date
The morning after being set-up, a single dish of amniotic fluid culture turns
cloudy and appears contaminated. None of the other cultures set up that day
appear contaminated. Which of the following should be done first?
,harvest the culture as soon as possible
If an amniotic fluid culture from the same sample grows well in a different
incubator, the probable cause of the culture failure is
incubator failure
Positive staining w/ Hoechst 33258 reveals micronuclei. Which of the following
agents caused the culture contamination?
mycoplasma
Which of the following statements is true about trypsin>
is is useful in removing cells from culture flasks
Which of the following is the best tissue to use for both a good success rate and
abnormality detection in spontaneous abortion specimen
chorionic villi
When a culture becomes contaminated, the culture medium shifts to an acidic pH.
If the medium contains a pH indicator, the color of the medium in the flask will
appear
yellow
Which of the following reagents is used in culturing peripheral blood, but not in
culturing bone marrow or amniotic fluid or chromosome analysis?
phytohemagglutinin (PHA)
Which of the following is the best agent to use for the presence of mycoplasma
growth in a culture?
BM cycline
A bone marrow culture on a patient w/ APL M3 has failed to yield analyzable
metaphases. The culture had a cell density of 1x10^4 calls/ml. The specimen had
been in transit for 2 days and was not sent in a transport medium. The most likely
cause of the failure is:
too much time in transit
Which of the following microscopes should be used when cleaning a chorionic
villus specimen?
dissection
Blood specimen for chromosome analysis may be kept in culture up to how many
hours after culture initiation?
96 hours
which of the following cell types is diagnostically most problematic if present in a
CVS sample?
maternal decidua
Cells from a skin fibroblast culture are to be frozen for storage in liquid nitrogen.
The cell concentration is 2X10^7 cells/ml. How many 2ml vials can be frozen if the
final cell concentration for storage is to be 2X10^6?
5
The time that a flask culture takes to reach confluency depends on all of the
following except the
humidity of the culture environment
Which of the following is true regarding closed-system cultures?
there is less chance of microbial contamination
A blood culture for a patient
, ent diagnosed w/ Di-George syndrome fails to grow in culture. The most likely
cause of the failure is:
that an insufficient number of cells were seeded in the cultureTo maximize the
effectiveness of the biological safety cabinet, the technologist should
move his or her arms in and out slowly, perpendicular to the opening
The following solution is used to detach monolayer cells
Trypsin- EDTA
Which of the following will help prevent microbial and cross contamination of
cultures?
aseptic technique
Which of the following factors are not important for chromosome spreading?
mitotic index
A good banding pattern will be expected when we observe chromosomes before
banding under the phase scope with the following appearance:
dark
Karyotype with a del 5q
bad prognosis, frequently associated with MDS
karyotype with a t(1;7)
reciprocal translocation
heteromorphic variants are usually clinically insignificant, but can be used to
study
infertility and recurrent spontaneous abortion
What is the function of the condenser?
center the focus light on specimen
amniotic fluid has a 47,XX, +mar in one culture, but the other culture is normal.
What do you do next?
count more cells from the normal culture
What class extinguisher do you use for electric currents?
C
patient analyzed with t(15;17) found in 3 cells. The rest are normal. What do you
do next?
report preliminary results to the referring physician; this translocation is CRITICAL in the
diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)
What is the syndrome with a r(22)?
Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS): characterized by neonatal hypotonia, absent to
severely delayed speech, developmental delay, and minor dysmorphic facial features
3 year old has a karyotype of 47,XX,+15. What do you do next?
Report the diseases of trisomy 15 due to possible heart defects
Patient has BM sample with an abnormality in 8 cells. A PHA stimulated
peripheral blood is obtained with an abnormality found in 3 cells. What does this
mean?
T-lymphocytes are suppressed by the disease
You analyze an amniotic fluid and notice a marker in most of the cells. What do
you do next?
request parental studies
CLIA sends out how many proficiency testing surveys each year?
