title: Routine incubation of BacT/ALERT FA and FN blood culture bottles for more than 3 days may not be necessary.
abstract: We reviewed time to detection for 35,500 blood cultures collected in BacT/ALERT FA and FN bottles. In the first 3 days of incubation, 97.5% of the 2,609 clinically significant isolates were detected, suggesting that routine incubation for more than 3 days may not be necessary for FA and FN bottles.
authors.affiliation: Division of Laboratory Medicine, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA 17822-0131, USA. pbourbeau@geisinger.edu
authors.forename: Paul P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Bourbeau
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Foltzer
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans