title: Clinical practice of obtaining blood cultures from patients with a central venous catheter in place: an international survey.
abstract: Several aspects of the procedure for obtaining blood cultures are rather controversial. An international survey among 386 experts was performed to investigate the clinical practice of obtaining blood cultures from patients with a central venous catheter (CVC). Among respondents, 64.5% obtain one set of blood cultures from the CVC and one set from the peripheral vein (PV). Other participants answered 'two sets from PV', 'two sets from CVC', 'one from PV', 'one from CVC' and 'other' (9.1%, 4.1%, 8.3%, 7%, and 7%, respectively). Clinicians who, according to the survey, demonstrated that they know the diagnostic performance characteristics of cultures more often obtain one culture from the CVC and one from the PV (73.9% vs. 61.7%, p 0.037).
authors.affiliation: Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Department of Medicine, Henry Dunant Hospital, Athens, Greece. m.falagas@aibs.gr
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Falagas
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ierodiakonou
authors.forename: V G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Alexiou
mesh_terms: D016470:Bacteremia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000379:methods*; D002405:Catheterization, Central Venous / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003470:Culture Media; D016469:Fungemia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media