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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 1998, p. 105-109, Vol. 36, No. 1
Service de Réanimation
Polyvalente,1
Service de Microbiologie
Médicale,2
Unité de
Pathologie Infectieuse,3 and
Département de Statistiques
Médicales,
Received 3 July 1997/Returned for modification 27 August
1997/Accepted 15 October 1997
To diagnose catheter-related sepsis without removing the catheter,
we evaluated the differential positivity times of cultures of blood
drawn simultaneously from central venous catheter and peripheral sites.
In a 450-bed cancer reference center, simultaneous central- and
peripheral-blood cultures were prospectively performed for patients
with suspicion of catheter-related sepsis over an 18-month period. Data
for 64 patients for whom the same microorganisms were found when
central- and peripheral-blood samples were cultured were
retrospectively reviewed by two independent physicians blinded to the
differential positivity time values in order to establish or refute the
diagnosis of catheter-related sepsis. The diagnosis was established in
28 cases, refuted in 14, and indeterminate in the remaining 22. The
differential positivity time was significantly greater for patients
with catheter-related sepsis (P < 10
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Earlier Positivity of Central-Venous- versus
Peripheral-Blood Cultures Is Highly Predictive of
Catheter-Related Sepsis
4).
A cutoff limit of +120 min had 100% specificity and 96.4% sensitivity for the diagnosis of catheter-related sepsis. These results strongly suggest that measurement of the differential positivity time might be a
reliable tool facilitating the diagnosis of catheter-related sepsis in
patients with an indwelling catheter.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Service de
Réanimation Polyvalente, Institut Gustave Roussy, 39, rue Camille
Desmoulins, 94805 Villejuif, France. Phone: 33 1 42 11 45 06. Fax: 33 1 42 11 52 12. E-mail: nitenber{at}igr.fr.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 1998, p. 105-109, Vol. 36, No. 1
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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