title: Clinical and microbiological characteristics in cases of positive blood cultures at Shin-Kokura Hospital during a period of 5 years.
abstract: In order to evaluate the present state of bacteremia, we investigated the clinical and microbiological characteristics of positive blood culture cases hospitalized in Shin-Kokura Hospital from January 1998 through December 2002. Seventy-five cases showed positive blood cultures during the 5 years, and 48 cases (64%) were 70 years old or more. Most of the cases had underlying diseases, such as malignancy. The diagnoses of the infectious diseases found included pneumonia (9 cases), enteric infection (9 cases), hepatobiliary infection (8 cases), urinary tract infection (8 cases), and endocarditis (6 cases). A total of 102 strains of microorganism were isolated, and Gram-positive bacteria accounted for 64.7% of the cases, with Gram-negative bacteria accounting for 29.4%. Most of the isolated microorganisms showed good susceptibility to antimicrobial agents except for MRSA. Antimicrobial agents were used for 54 cases of bacteremia, and 33 patients improved, but 21 patients died, including 10 whose death was due to infection. In this study, the 54 cases of bacteremia (72% of all cases with a positive blood culture) showed a mortality rate of 18.5% due to infection, in spite of adequate antimicrobial treatment. Our data suggest that physicians should recognize the difficulty of treating bacteremia, and should pay close attention to the physical condition of patients with bacteremia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Shin-Kokura Hospital, 1-3-1 Kanada, Kokurakita-ku, Kitakyushu, 803-8505, Japan. satkuboi@d2.dion.ne.jp
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuboi
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nomura
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged