A comparison of two blood culture procedures for the isolation of staphylococci in a paediatric intensive care unit

Abstract

Blood culture results obtained between January 2000 and July 2003 were reviewed for 1360 patients in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). The BacT/Alert FA aerobic medium was used with a blood volume of 1.5 mL for the first 23 months, and the BacT/Alert PF paediatric medium was used with a 0.5-mL volume for the remaining 18 months. The isolation rates were similar during both periods (13.4% vs. 13.1%), and staphylococci were the most common isolates (72.8%). There was a shorter time to detection of staphylococci with the smaller-volume (PF) procedure, which thus seems suitable for use in the diagnosis of staphylococcal bacteraemia in the PICU.

How Reliable Is a Negative Blood Culture Result? Volume of Blood Submitted for Culture in Routine Practice in a Children's Hospital

“…14 In contrast, there was no difference in overall isolation rates between 0.5-mL and 1.5-mL blood cultures (13.4% vs 13.1%) in a recent study that investigated 2 blood culture procedures in a PICU. 29 However, coagulasenegative staphylococci were isolated more commonly with the low-volume blood culture system, and it was not possible to determine whether they were significant or contaminant isolates.…”

Automated colorimetric blood culture systems in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis

“…In adults, the BacT/Alert system shows improved positivity rate due to the large volume of blood sampled [1]. Fortunately, it appears that use of very small inoculation volume (down to 0.5 mL) does not compromise isolation rate [8,10], supporting the evidencebased assertion that microbial culture blood volume may be less important in neonates and small children than in adults [11].…”

“…This situation is beginning to be rectified by clinical laboratory performance studies targeting different populations. During the past dozen years, several observational and experimental trials have indicated that continuous blood culture monitoring permits sensitive and speedy confirmation of bacteremia and fungemia in adults [3,5] and children [6][7][8][9]. A key gap that remains is the paucity of data for neonates.…”