Comparative Recovery of Microorganisms from BacT/ALERT Plastic and Glass FA and FN Blood Culture Bottles

Abstract

bioMerieux, Inc., has recently introduced plastic bottles to replace glass bottles for use in the BacT/ALERT blood culture system. We compared the performance of the plastic to the glass bottles in a large clinical evaluation. Two blood cultures were collected from each patient, one using glass FA (aerobic) and FN (anaerobic) bottles and one using plastic FA and FN bottles. Of the 4,040 sets of four bottles collected, 3,110 contained the recommended 8 to 12 ml of blood, yielding 524 microorganisms with 359 judged to be clinically significant. Of the 359 significant organisms, 255 were recovered in either one or two bottles from both pairs of bottles in a set while 56 organisms were recovered only from the glass bottles and 48 were recovered only from the plastic bottles (P, not significant [NS]). Of the 286 significant organisms recovered only in the FA bottles (glass and plastic), 180 were recovered in both bottles, 57 in the plastic bottles only, and 49 in the glass bottles only (P, NS). Of the 303 significant organisms recovered in the FN bottles only (glass and plastic), 212 were recovered in both bottles, 46 in the plastic bottles only, and 45 in the glass bottles only (P, NS). For individual organisms, the only significant difference in recovery was obtained for Escherichia coli, with more isolates recovered in the FN plastic than in the FN glass bottles (P ‫؍‬ 0.02). These data suggest that recovery of microorganisms with plastic FA/FN bottles is at least equal to that with glass FA/FN bottles while offering greater safety for users.bioMerieux, Inc. (Durham, NC), recently introduced plastic blood culture bottles to replace the previously utilized glass blood culture bottles. This change was made to reduce or eliminate the possibility of breakage. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of the glass and plastic aerobic (FA) and anaerobic (FN) bottles with a full 10-ml blood draw in each bottle. MATERIALS AND METHODSThe standard of care for adult patients at Geisinger Medical Center is two pairs of blood cultures collected sequentially via separate venipunctures or separate line access. For this study, sets of four BacT/ALERT blood culture bottles were specially prepared in the laboratory. Sets included one each of a plastic FA (PFA), plastic FN (PFN), glass FA (GFA), and glass FN (GFN) blood culture bottle. Each pair of PFA-PFN or GFA-GFN bottles was labeled with the number one or two in order to facilitate collecting first into the PFA-PFN pair for approximately one-half of the patients while the remainder of the patient draws were collected first into the GFA-GFN pair. The standard Geisinger Medical Center protocol was followed for skin preparation prior to collection. Blood volumes were verified (8 to 12 ml) by the use of a visual standard.For the sake of clarity, the following terminology is consistently utilized in this report: the term "set" refers to all four bottles collected during a patient episode, the term "pair" refers to two bottles collected by a single collection procedure,...

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