[Evaluation of the speed of 3 hemoculture systems to detect bacteria in the blood].
BACKGROUND
The speed of three culture blood systems to detect microbial growth was evaluated with 138 strains isolated from blood which belonged to nine species (N. meningitidis, S. aureus, S. pneumoniae, E. coli, E. faecalis, P. aeruginosa, H. influenzae, A. anitratus and Candida spp.).


METHODS
An inoculum of 5-50 UFC were added to each bottle: vials 26 plus with Bactec NR-860 (Becton-Dickinson), aerobial vials with Bact/Alert (Organon) and Hemóline biphasic (bioMérieux). Besides, 10 ml of whole human blood from storage were added to each bottle, too.


RESULTS
Bact/Alert was faster in detecting bacterial growth than Bactec with differences statistically significants for all of them, except for H. influenzae. On the other hand, Bactec was faster than Hemóline with differences statistically significant for all bacterial species except S. pneumoniae, which was first detected with manual biphasic method. The median time for detecting growth ranged between 10 h for E. faecalis and A. anitratus in Bact/Alert and 36 h for S. pneumoniae with Bactec.


CONCLUSIONS
Bact/Alert detected growth earlier than Bactec, and was quicker than Hemóline. However, other factors have to be in account to choose a method. For instance, biphasic method has the advantage of showing growth in solid medium, whereas automatic systems, at the moment, only use liquid media.
Climent
C
C
Sección de Microbiología, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, El Palmar, Murcia.
Núñez
M L
ML
Sempere
M
M
Gómez
J
J
Ruiz
J
J
D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D002175:Candida / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D013997:Time Factors
Evaluación de la rapidez de tres sistemas de hemocultivos para detectar bacterias en sangre.