title: Evaluation of the BacT/Alert and VITAL blood culture systems for the diagnosis of bacteremia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the detection of bacterial growth in the BacT/Alert (Organon Teknika) and VITAL (bioMérieux) automated blood culture systems. METHODS: In accordance with the protocol of study, 1021 blood sample pairs for culture were obtained from adult patients admitted to the Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit. RESULTS: In total, 139 (13.6%) clinically significant blood cultures were detected, of which 79 (56.8%) were detected by both systems, 48 (34.5%) only by BacT/Alert and 12 (8.6%) only by VITAL (P cent0.0001). The BacT/Alert system detected positive blood cultures more rapidly for all groups of microorganisms. The VITAL system showed six false-negative blood cultures, while the BacT/Alert system showed none (P50.03). There was no significant difference between the number of false-positive blood cultures detected by the two systems. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, overall the BacT/Alert system achieved a better recovery of microorganisms than the VITAL system.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Consorci Hospitalari Parc Taulí, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Dionisia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fontanals
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sanfeliu
authors.forename: Immaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.forename: Dolors
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mariscal
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Torra