title: Comparative evaluation of the BCB Roche and Oxoid Signal blood culture systems.
abstract: The agar-slide blood culture system BCB Roche was compared with the Oxoid Signal blood culture system using 2,266 paired blood cultures. A total of 271 (12%) paired sets were culture-positive, including 222 (9.8%) yielding pathogens associated with septicemia and 50 (2.2%) yielding likely contaminants. In the recovery of the total 235 isolates considered as pathogens, the BCB Roche system yielded 202 (85.9%), the Oxoid Signal 211 (89.8%); 178 (75.7%) were cultured by both systems. There was no statistically significant difference between the two systems in their sensitivity, contamination-rate and detection time, except for gram-positive organisms, which were detected earlier by the Oxoid Signal system. Both systems performed well and were easy to handle.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Central de Bactériologie, Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire de Genève, Switzerland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rohner
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Auckenthaler
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000362:Agar