RODRIGUEZ-CREIXEMS M, BOUZA E, GUINEA J, FRON C, MUNOZ P, SANCHEZ C; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Abstr Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1999 Sep 26-29; 39: 189 (abstract no. 208).

Hosp. Gregorio Maranon, Madrid, SPAIN.

INTRODUCTION: The latest edition of the Cumitech 1B recommends that "two to three blood cultures are sufficient to detect nearly all episodes of bacteremia and fungemia". However, the difference in workload and cost for the Microbiology Laboratory of recommending 2 versus 3 blood sets is very significant. Many institutions at the present time recommend 2 sets, but our center maintains a 3 set recommendation for the diagnosis of an episode of bacteremia in adult patients. OBJECTIVE: To determine the number of bloodstream infections that we would have missed in case of not processing our third blood culture. Material andMETHODS: We process blood cultures according to standard recommendations with the BACTEC-9240 automatic system (Beckton Dickinson Lab.). During a two-month period (February and March of 1999) 585 patients with 3 or more sets of blood cultures processed were included in the study. Blood bottles were weighed on arrival at the laboratory in order to calculate the real amount of blood cultured.RESULTS: During the study period we processed 4,828 blood cultures which produced 150 episodes of significant bacteremia in adults. The mean amount of blood included in the 3 sets of 585 blood cultures was 23.4 ml. The combination of the first and second set of blood cultures was able to diagnose 81.3% of all episodes of bacteremia. Without the contribution of the third set we would have missed 18.6% of all significant bloodstream infections.CONCLUSION: Our results make it impossible to remove the third blood culture set at the present time. Those institutions which recommend a two blood culture set should check for the adequacy of the volume of blood included in the bottles.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Adult
• Bacteremia
• Culture
• Culture Media
• Fungemia
• Humans
• blood
• blood supply
• diagnosis

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0007676

UI: 102245172

From Meeting Abstracts