Time to Detection with BacT/Alert FA Plus Compared to BacT/Alert FA Blood Culture Media.
Rapid identification of the causative pathogen in patients with bacteremia allows adjustment of antibiotic therapy and improves patient outcomes. We compared in vitro and real-life time to detection (TTD) of two blood culture media, BacT/Alert FA (FA) and BacT/Alert FA Plus (FA Plus), for the nine most common species of bacterial pathogens recovered from blood samples. Experimental data from simulated cultures was compared with microbiology records of TTD for both culture media with growth of the species of interest in clinical blood cultures. In the experimental conditions, median TTD was 3.8 hours (23.9 %) shorter using FA Plus media. The magnitude of reduction differed between species. Similarly, in real life data, FA Plus had shorter TTD than FA media; however, the difference between culture media was smaller, and median TTD was only 1 hour (8.5 %) less. We found shorter TTD with BacT/Alert FA Plus culture media, both experimentally and in real-life conditions and unrelated to antibiotic neutralization, highlighting the importance of appropriate blood culture media selection.
Division of Epidemiology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel. amirn@tlvmc.gov.il.
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Nutman
Division of Epidemiology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel.
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Fisher Even-Tsur
Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
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Shapiro
Division of Epidemiology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel.
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Braun
Division of Epidemiology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel.
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Schwartz
Division of Epidemiology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel.
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Carmeli
D016470:Bacteremia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000071997:Blood Culture / Q000379:methods*; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors
D003470:Culture Media