Brucella detection in blood: comparison of the BacT/Alert standard aerobic bottle, BacT/Alert FAN aerobic bottle and BacT/Alert enhanced FAN aerobic bottle in simulated blood culture

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the performances of the standard aerobic bottle (StAe), FAN aerobic (FANAe) and enhanced FAN aerobic (E-FANAe) (the charcoal component of the FANAe was revised recently to improve the feasibility of Gram smear interpretation) blood culture bottles for BacT/Alert system for the detection of Brucella melitensis in simulated blood culture. Triplicate strains of eight clinical isolates of B. melitensis were studied. Each bottle was inoculated with 5 mL of freshly collected human blood at three different targeted bacterial inocula (10(1), 10(2) and 10(3) CFU/bottle). All bottles were monitored for up to 21 days or until they became positive. The results of time to detection (TTD) on the eight B. melitensis samples were as follows: at 10(1) CFU/bottle, the E-FANAe had a mean TTD significantly shorter than the StAe (48 h vs. 56.2 h, P < 0.05); and at 10(3) CFU/bottle, the FANAe and E-FANAe had a mean TTD significantly shorter than the StAe (41.2 h and 40 h vs. 45.6 h, P < 0.05). The reproducibilities (no.of positive signals/no.of all bottles) of three bottle systems were as follows: at 10(1) CFU/bottle, the reproducibilities of StAe, FANAe and E-FANAe were 96, 83 and 58%, respectively. At 10(3) CFU/bottle, the reproducibilities of StAe, FANAe and E-FANAe were 95, 95 and 91%, respectively. Positive results for the presence of bacteria in Gram smears were confirmed in 68% of StAe, 54% of FANAe and 90% of E-FANAe. In case of suspected brucellosis, the combination of one StAe bottle and one E-FANAe bottle seems to provide the highest and fastest recovery of the organism.

Clinical features and serum profile of inflammatory biomarkers in patients with brucellosis

“…One study reported a mean detection time of 51.2 ± 8.2 hours using BacT/ALERT standard aerobic bottles [7]. Another investigation showed the mean detection time of Brucella spp.…”

“…The diagnosis of brucellosis based on blood culture may be challenging because a relatively low sensitivity is associated with the disease progress. There is different performance among different blood culture systems [7,16]. Both BacT/ALERT and BACTEC FX blood culture systems are widely used to recover Brucella spp.…”

Conventional and molecular biotyping of Brucella strains isolated from cattle, sheep and human

“…One of the important reason for this faulty is poorly organized health centers that not operate harmoniously for true case definitions throughout the country. Sümerkan et al (22), have reported that approximately 50-60 B. melitensis were isolated from 8000 blood samples per year in Kayseri and that Brucellosis caused by B. melitensis was endemic in this region. Also in this study, a total of 50 Brucella spp.…”

Bases para el manejo médico de enfermedades bacterianas potencialmente implicadas en bioterrorismo: ántrax, peste, tularemia y brucelosis

“…El diagnóstico microbiológico obedece a la doble estrategia apuntada de acuerdo con lo expresado en la tabla VIII. Como método de diagnóstico directo mantiene su vigencia el asisla- miento con un nivel de bioseguridad exigible a un agente de clase 3, a partir fundamentalmente de hemocultivos (107,108), cultivo de médula ósea (109) o de muestras representativas de la amplia gama de focalidades clínicas que es capaz de originar. En la actualidad el rendimiento de los métodos de cultivo clásicos como el bifásico de Castañeda se ha visto mejorado por los sistemas comerciales automatizados (107).…”