title: Contamination of catheter-drawn blood cultures.
abstract: To assess the risk of contamination, we reviewed retrospectively 1,408 matched pairs of simultaneous catheter-drawn and venipuncture blood cultures. Catheter-drawn cultures were equally likely to be truly positive (14.4 versus 13.7%) but more likely to be contaminated (3.8 versus 1.8% [P = 0.001]). Direct venipuncture cultures are preferred.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Everts
authors.forename: E N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Vinson
authors.forename: P O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Adholla
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Reller
mesh_terms: D016470:Bacteremia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000379:methods*; D002408:Catheters, Indwelling; D003470:Culture Media; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media