Previous Article | Next Article 
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 2004, p. 773-777, Vol. 42, No. 2
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.2.773-777.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Comparison of Mycosis IC/F and Plus Aerobic/F Media for Diagnosis of Fungemia by the Bactec 9240 System
Marie-Hélène Meyer,1 Valérie Letscher-Bru,1* Benoît Jaulhac,2 Jocelyn Waller,1 and Ermanno Candolfi1
Institut de Parasitologie et de Pathologie Tropicale,1
Institut de Bactériologie, Faculté de Médecine, 67000 Strasbourg, France2
Received 5 September 2003/
Returned for modification 15 October 2003/
Accepted 23 October 2003

ABSTRACT
Fungemia is associated with a high mortality rate. We compared
the performance of the Mycosis IC/F selective fungal medium
and the Plus Aerobic/F standard bacteriological medium for the
diagnosis of fungemia on the Bactec 9240 automatic system. We
retrospectively analyzed 550 blood culture pairs composed of
one Mycosis IC/F vial and one Plus Aerobic/F vial, drawn in
187 patients with fungemia. The positivity rate by vial was
significantly higher on Mycosis IC/F medium than on Plus Aerobic/F
medium (88.0% versus 74.9%,
P < 0.0001). The positivity rate
for fungus detection on Plus Aerobic/F medium fell to 26.9%
when bacteria were present in the same vial. The positivity
rate by patient was also significantly higher on Mycosis IC/F
medium than on Plus Aerobic/F medium (92.5% versus 75.9%,
P < 0.0001). A marked superiority of Mycosis IC/F medium was
demonstrated for diagnosis of
Candida glabrata fungemia (31
of 31, 100%, versus 18 of 31, 58.1%,
P < 0.0001). The mean
detection time was significantly shorter on Mycosis IC/F medium
than on Plus Aerobic/F medium (28.9 ± 22.2 h versus 36.5
± 24.6 h,
P < 0.0001). The mean time saving was 8.8
h for
Candida albicans and 43.7 h for
C. glabrata. Mycosis IC/F
medium enabled more sensitive and earlier diagnosis, particularly
for the two strains most frequently responsible for fungemia,
C. albicans and
C. glabrata, and also in the event of the concomitant
presence of both yeasts and bacteria. In patients with risk
factors, it would thus appear to be sensible to draw a Mycosis
IC/F vial in addition to the standard bacteriological vials.

INTRODUCTION
Nosocomial systemic infections are a major cause of mortality
and morbidity.
Candida yeasts are currently the fourth most
common pathogen isolated in nosocomial bloodstream infections
(
2,
15).
Candida albicans is still the most common species,
but there has been an increase in non-
C. albicans species in
the last decade, especially
Candida glabrata (
10). The mortality
rate in fungemia cases is high (40 to 60%) due to difficulties
diagnosing and treating it (
17). It is therefore very important
that microbiology laboratories can detect yeasts in the blood
as quickly as possible and with a satisfactory level of sensitivity.
Blood cultures are the first-line test in the event of any suspected case of systemic mycosis. Current techniques use broth culture media processed using automated systems, which have considerably improved the sensitivity of blood cultures for the detection of microorganisms. However, the sensitivity of blood cultures for the diagnosis of fungemia is estimated to be only 50% (7). The Bactec system (BD Diagnostic Systems, Sparks, Md.) proposes media specifically formulated for the isolation of fungi in blood. The Fungal Blood Culture medium is used on Bactec NR first-generation noncontinuous monitoring systems and the Mycosis IC/F is used on Bactec 9000 second-generation continuous monitoring systems. The Bactec 9240 automatic system for blood cultures is based on the continuous-monitoring detection by fluorescence of CO2 produced during the growth of microorganisms.
Mycosis IC/F medium is a brain-heart broth enriched with sucrose, containing chloramphenicol and tobramycin to inhibit bacterial growth, and a lysis agent, saponin. The standard bacteriological blood culture vials are Plus Aerobic/F and Peds Plus/F media for the detection of aerobic bacteria and microaerophilic organisms and Plus Anaerobic/F medium for anaerobic bacteria. Plus Aerobic/F medium is a soybean-casein digest broth enriched with yeast extract, dextrose, sucrose, hemin, menadione, and vitamin B6. Peds Plus/F medium is the same formula as Plus Aerobic/F medium enriched with animal tissue digest and sodium pyruvate. Most yeasts are capable of growing on aerobic bacteriological blood culture media, but studies based on the inoculation of blood culture vials with standardized numbers of yeasts have shown that the positivity rate and the detection speed were better on Mycosis IC/F medium than on different standard bacteriological media in continuous monitoring (3, 14).
The aim of our study was to compare, in a clinical situation and on a large population of patients, the efficacy of Mycosis IC/F fungal medium and Plus Aerobic/F standard bacteriological medium in terms of positivity rate and detection time for the diagnosis of fungemia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Patients.
We conducted a retrospective study of all fungemia cases that
occurred at the Strasbourg University Hospital over a 46-month
period, from January 1998 to November 2001. All patients who
had at least one positive blood culture for fungi during this
period were included in the analysis. Comparative analyses were
then made exclusively on blood culture pairs, a pair being made
up of one Mycosis IC/F vial and one Plus Aerobic/F vial, sampled
from the patient at the same time and from the same site and
processed simultaneously in the laboratory.
Blood culture processing.
All the vials were monitored at 35°C in the Bactec 9240 with automatic reading of fluorescence every 10 min. The protocol duration was 160 h for the Mycosis IC/F vials and 120 h for the Plus Aerobic/F vials, in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations. Positive vials, along with their detection times, were signaled by the system. Each vial signaled as being positive by the system was the subject of direct examination to confirm the presence of fungi or bacteria. Blood cultures positive for fungi were then inoculated on Candiselect chromogenic medium (Bio-Rad, Marnes-la-Coquette, France) and incubated for 24 to 48 h at 35°C. C. albicans was identified by the blue color of the colonies. The other yeasts were identified on the basis of their morphology on potato-carrot-bile medium and according to their biochemical characters on the Auxacolor system (Bio-Rad). Blood cultures positive for bacteria were inoculated on standard bacteriological agars (blood agar, chocolate-polyvitex agar, Drigalski agar) for 24 to 48 h at 37°C, and the bacteria were identified using biochemical systems according to the initial guiding information.
Data analysis.
For each patient, we recorded the total number of blood cultures drawn on Mycosis IC/F medium and on Plus Aerobic/F medium, the number of blood cultures positive for fungi on each of the media, the fungal species involved, and the detection times of the positive vials. Since the processing protocol for the Plus Aerobic/F vials was only 120 h in comparison with 160 h for the Mycosis IC/F vials, we were unable to reconstitute pairs when the Mycosis IC/F vial was positive after 120 h. These Mycosis IC/F vials were therefore eliminated from the comparative analyses. The positivity rates were compared using Fisher's exact test. The detection times were compared using the Mann-Whitney test, since distribution of the values was not Gaussian. The cumulative positivity plots as a function of detection time were compared using the log-rank test. Values of P < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.

RESULTS
During the 46 months of the study, 68,150 Mycosis IC/F blood
culture vials and 124,060 Plus Aerobic/F blood culture vials
were drawn. In total, we recorded 1,148 blood cultures positive
for fungi on Mycosis IC/F medium or Plus Aerobic/F medium, in
238 patients. For the comparative analysis of the media, we
only retained Mycosis IC/F and Plus Aerobic/F blood culture
couples that were strictly paired, as defined in the Materials
and Methods section. Consequently, the final comparative analysis
was conducted on 1,100 blood culture vials, forming 550 pairs,
taken from 187 patients. We successively analyzed the positivity
rates of the two media, the efficacy for diagnosis of fungemia
by patient, the detection times of positive vials, and the influence
of the concomitant presence of bacteria on the isolation of
fungi.
Positivity rate by bottle.
The overall positivity rate of the blood cultures for isolation of yeasts was significantly higher for the Mycosis IC/F vials than for the Plus Aerobic/F vials (484 of 550, 88%, versus 412 of 550, 74.9%; P < 0.0001) (Table 1). The positivity rates varied depending on the fungal species isolated (Table 1). The Mycosis IC/F medium was revealed to be significantly better for C. parapsilosis (P = 0.0045) and, especially, for C. glabrata (P < 0.0001). For this species, 40 isolates (62.5%) were only detected on the Mycosis IC/F medium. In our study, one patient presented disseminated fusariosis. The Mycosis IC/F vial enabled isolation of Fusarium proliferatum, whereas the Plus Aerobic/F vial remained negative.
Positivity rate by patient.
Significantly more cases of fungemia were diagnosed on Mycosis
IC/F medium than on Plus Aerobic/F medium (173 of 187, 92.5%,
versus 142 of 187, 75.9%;
P < 0.0001) (Table
2). Forty-five
cases of fungemia (24.1%) were only detected on Mycosis IC/F
medium. Analysis of the rates according to the fungal species
did not demonstrate any significant difference between the two
media for
C. albicans,
C. parapsilosis,
C. tropicalis, and
C. krusei. Conversely, a very marked superiority of the Mycosis
IC/F medium was observed for
C. glabrata (
P < 0.0001). For
this species, almost half of the cases of fungemia (13 of 31,
41.9%) were only diagnosed on Mycosis IC/F medium.
Detection time.
The mean detection time of the positive vials was significantly
shorter with the Mycosis IC/F medium than the Plus Aerobic/F
medium (28.9 h versus 36.5 h,
P < 0.0001) (Table
3). Analysis
of the detection times by fungal species demonstrated a very
significant time saving on Mycosis IC/F medium for the isolation
of
C. albicans, with a mean time saving of 8.8 h (
P < 0.0001),
and especially for
C. glabrata, with a mean time saving of 43.7
h (
P < 0.0001).
Overall efficacy of the two media.
The overall efficacy is defined by the combination of positivity
rate and time criteria of the blood cultures. We compared the
cumulative positivity kinetic plots as a function of time for
the two media for the most common strains. Mycosis IC/F medium
was shown to be statistically more effective than Plus Aerobic/F
medium for the isolation of the two species responsible for
most cases of fungemia,
C. albicans (
P < 0.0001) and
C. glabrata (
P < 0.0001) (Fig.
1). The difference was not significant
for
C. parapsilosis (
P = 0.0931),
C. tropicalis (
P = 0.2050),
C. krusei (
P = 0.2114),
C. inconspicua (
P = 0.8870), and
Saccharomyces cerevisiae (
P = 0.0704).
Concomitant presence of fungi and bacteria.
To evaluate the influence of the presence of bacteria on detection
of fungi in blood cultures containing both microorganisms, we
analyzed 52 blood culture pairs in which a bacterium was isolated
in the Plus Aerobic/F vial corresponding to a Mycosis IC/F vial
positive for fungus. The rate for the isolation of fungus on
Plus Aerobic/F medium was statistically lower when bacteria
were present in the same sample (14 of 52, 26.9%) than in the
absence of bacteria (398 of 498, 79.9%) (
P < 0.0001). These
52 blood culture pairs corresponded to 39 patients. Thus, 20.9%
of the patients in our study had at least one concomitant isolation
of yeasts and bacteria. Fungemia was diagnosed in the Mycosis
IC/F vial for all 39 patients and in the Plus Aerobic/F vial
for only 23 patients (
P < 0.0001).

DISCUSSION
Advances in the field of blood culture media and detection technologies
have considerably improved the sensitivity of diagnosis of bloodstream
infections (
12). The diagnosis of fungemia is still difficult,
however, while the number of patients with a high risk of fungal
infection is steadily rising. Standard bacteriological media
allow the growth of most fungi and several studies have compared
the efficacy of various bacteriological media and different
detection systems for the isolation of fungi in the blood. Among
the latest-generation continuous monitoring systems, comparable
performance levels have been found for BacT/Alert FAN Aerobic
bacteriological medium monitored on the BacT/Alert system and
Plus Aerobic/F medium monitored on the Bactec 9240 system for
the diagnosis of fungemia (
8,
11).
Only the Bactec system proposes media specifically formulated for fungi. McDonald et al. compared the BacT/Alert FAN medium on a continuous system and the Fungal Blood Culture medium monitored on the Bactec NR660 noncontinuous system and found comparable performances for the diagnosis of fungemia (9). However, Vigano et al. compared the continuous-monitoring detection times of BacT/Alert Fan Aerobic, Plus Aerobic/F, and Mycosis IC/F media inoculated with standard quantities of yeasts (14). The detection times were always shorter on Mycosis IC/F medium than on the bacteriological media, with a mean time saving of 5 h over the Plus Aerobic/F medium and 9 h over the BacT/Alert Fan Aerobic medium, suggesting a possible increased sensitivity with Mycosis IC/F medium for the diagnosis of fungemia in clinical practice.
The aim of our study was to compare, in a clinical situation and on a large population of patients, the performance of Mycosis IC/F and Plus Aerobic/F media processed in parallel in the Bactec 9240 system by continuous monitoring. The results show that the Mycosis IC/F medium clearly has several advantages over the Plus Aerobic/F medium for the isolation of yeasts in the blood. The positivity rates are statistically better on the Mycosis IC/F medium, when analyzed both by sample and by patient. In particular, analysis by species demonstrates the very marked superiority of Mycosis IC/F medium for the isolation of C. glabrata. The detection time was significantly shorter on Mycosis IC/F than on Plus Aerobic/F medium. All species combined, yeasts were detected, on average, 7.6 h earlier with the Mycosis IC/F medium, confirming the data obtained with media spiked with yeasts (3, 14).
We found a high level of disparity between species. The mean time saving provided by the Mycosis IC/F medium was 8.8 h for C. albicans and 43.7 h for C. glabrata. Fricker-Hidalgo et al. had also observed a marked time saving, of 9.5 h for C. albicans and 105.2 h for C. glabrata, on Mycosis IC/F medium in comparison with the results seen with Plus Aerobic/F medium on the Bactec 9240 system (3). In our study, analysis of the global efficacy by combining the criteria for positivity rate and speed, clearly demonstrates the advantage of the Mycosis IC/F medium for C. albicans and C. glabrata. This increased sensitivity and earlier diagnosis are crucial for C. albicans and C. glabrata, which alone represent 70% of all fungemia cases (2). C. glabrata is currently the second commonest agent responsible for fungemia behind C. albicans and is associated with low sensitivity to fluconazole and with particularly high mortality rates (1). The value of Mycosis IC/F medium for the diagnosis of C. glabrata fungemia is therefore obvious.
Mycosis IC/F medium provides a considerable advantage when yeasts are present concomitantly with bacteria. These combinations are common. They represented 21% of the fungemia cases in our study and 18% in the study by Grillot et al. (R. Grillot, H. Fricker-Hidalgo, B. Lebeau, H. Pelloux, J. Croize, C. Recule, and P. Ambroise-Thomas, 39th Intersci. Conf. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., 1999, abstract J975). In this situation, the absence of detection of yeasts on bacteriological media could be due to inhibition of fungal growth by more rapid bacterial development or by the production of antifungal substances by the bacteria. In the study by Vigano et al. with simulated blood cultures, the mean detection time for Candida spp. was 29.2 h, whereas the majority of bacterial strains tested presented a shorter detection time (14). It was also shown that bacterial flora inhibited detection of yeasts in 50% of polymicrobial samples inoculated on media not spiked with antibiotics (13) and that Pseudomonas aeruginosa was capable of inhibiting the growth in vitro of several yeast species (4). An in vivo model of coinfection with C. albicans and P. aeruginosa has confirmed these data (6).
Mycosis IC/F medium also appears to be more effective than a standard bacteriological medium for the isolation of Fusarium sp. and certain low growing or exigent yeasts, such as Malassezia spp., C. guillermondii, or Cryptococcus neoformans (3, 5). In our study, the low number of these particular species did not allow statistical comparisons. In addition, we could not evaluate the ability of the Mycosis IC/F medium in recovering Histoplasma capsulatum or other dimorphic fungi from blood since these pathogens are very rare in Europe. It would be interesting to evaluate the Mycosis IC/F medium, especially in comparison with the reference Isolator system, for the detection of dimorphic fungal pathogens.
In conclusion, the Mycosis IC/F medium was shown to be more effective than the Plus Aerobic/F medium for the diagnosis of fungemia in terms of positivity rate and detection speed. The advantage was particularly obvious for C. albicans and C. glabrata as well as in cases of blood cultures combining both bacteria and fungi. The risk factors for systemic Candida infection are currently clearly identified (16, 17), and it would therefore seem sensible to draw a Mycosis IC/F vial in addition to the standard bacteriological vials to improve the sensitivity and speed of diagnosis of fungemia in high-risk patients.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut de Parasitologie et de Pathologie Tropicale, Faculté de Médecine, 3 rue Koeberlé, 67000 Strasbourg, France. Phone: 00 33 3 90 24 37 00. Fax: 00 33 3 90 24 36 93. E-mail:
valerie.letscher{at}medecine.u-strasbg.fr.


REFERENCES
1 - Bodey, G. P., M. Mardani, H. A. Hanna, M. Boktour, J. Abbas, E. Girgawy, R. Y. Hachem, D. P. Kontoyiannis, and X. Raad II. 2002. The epidemiology of Candida glabrata and Candida albicans fungemia in immunocompromised patients with cancer. Am. J. Med. 112:380-385.[CrossRef][Medline]
2 - Edmond, M. B., S. E. Wallace, D. K. McClish, M. A. Pfaller, R. N. Jones, and R. P. Wenzel. 1999. Nosocomial bloodstream infections in United States hospitals: a three-year analysis. Clin. Infect. Dis. 29:239-244.[Medline]
3 - Fricker-Hidalgo, H., F. Chazot, B. Lebeau, H. Pelloux, P. Ambroise-Thomas, and R. Grillot. 1998. Use of simulated blood cultures to compare a specific fungal medium with a standard microorganism medium for yeast detection. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 17:113-116.[Medline]
4 - Grillot, R., V. Portmann-Coffin, and P. Ambroise-Thomas. 1994. Growth inhibition of pathogenic yeasts by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in vitro: clinical implications in blood cultures. Mycoses 37:343-347.[Medline]
5 - Hennequin, C., C. Ranaivoarimalala, T. Chouaki, M. Tazerout, T. Ancelle, J. J. Cabaud, and C. P. Raccurt. 2002. Comparison of aerobic standard medium with specific fungal medium for detecting Fusarium spp in blood cultures. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 21:748-750.[CrossRef][Medline]
6 - Hockey, L. J., N. K. Fujita, T. R. Gibson, D. Rotrosen, J. Z. Montgomerie, and J. E. Edwards. 1982. Detection of fungemia obscured by concomitant bacteremia: in vitro and in vivo studies. J. Clin. Microbiol. 16:1080-1085.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
7 - Jones, J. M. 1990. Laboratory diagnosis of invasive candidiasis. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 3:32-45.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
8 - Jorgensen, J. H., S. Mirrett, L. C. McDonald, P. R. Murray, M. P. Weinstein, J. Fune, C. W. Trippy, M. Masterson, and L. B. Reller. 1997. Controlled clinical laboratory comparison of BACTEC plus aerobic/F resin medium with BacT/Alert aerobic FAN medium for detection of bacteremia and fungemia. J. Clin. Microbiol. 35:53-58.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
9 - McDonald, L. C., M. P. Weinstein, J. Fune, S. Mirrett, L. G. Reimer, and L. B. Reller. 2001. Controlled comparison of BacT/ALERT FAN aerobic medium and BACTEC fungal blood culture medium for detection of fungemia. J. Clin. Microbiol. 39:622-624.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
10 - Pfaller, M. A., R. N. Jones, S. A. Messer, M. B. Edmond, and R. P. Wenzel. 1998. National surveillance of nosocomial blood stream infection due to species of Candida other than Candida albicans: frequency of occurrence and antifungal susceptibility in the SCOPE Program. SCOPE Participant Group. Surveillance and Control of Pathogens of Epidemiologic. Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 30:121-129.[CrossRef][Medline]
11 - Pohlman, J. K., B. A. Kirkley, K. A. Easley, B. A. Basille, and J. A. Washington. 1995. Controlled clinical evaluation of BACTEC Plus Aerobic/F and BacT/Alert Aerobic FAN bottles for detection of bloodstream infections. J. Clin. Microbiol. 33:2856-2858.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
12 - Reimer, L. G., M. L. Wilson, and M. P. Weinstein. 1997. Update on detection of bacteremia and fungemia. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 10:444-465.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
13 - Sandven, P., and J. Lassen. 1999. Importance of selective media for recovery of yeasts from clinical specimens. J. Clin. Microbiol. 37:3731-3732.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
14 - Vigano, E. F., E. Vasconi, C. Agrappi, and P. Clerici. 2002. Use of simulated blood cultures for time to detection comparison between BacT/ALERT and BACTEC 9240 blood culture systems. Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 44:235-240.[CrossRef][Medline]
15 - Vincent, J. L., D. J. Bihari, P. M. Suter, H. A. Bruining, J. White, M. H. Nicolas-Chanoin, M. Wolff, R. C. Spencer, and M. Hemmer. 1995. The prevalence of nosocomial infection in intensve care units in Europe. Results of the European Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care (EPIC) study. EPIC International Advisory Committee. JAMA 274:639-644.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
16 - Wenzel, R. P. 1995. Nosocomial candidemia: risk factors and attributable mortality. Clin. Infect. Dis. 20:1531-1534.[Medline]
17 - Wey, S. B., M. Mori, M. A. Pfaller, R. F. Woolson, and R. P. Wenzel. 1988. Hospital-acquired candidemia. The attributable mortality and excess length of stay. Arch. Intern. Med. 148:2642-2645.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 2004, p. 773-777, Vol. 42, No. 2
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.2.773-777.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Chiarini, A., Palmeri, A., Amato, T., Immordino, R., Distefano, S., Giammanco, A.
(2008). Detection of Bacterial and Yeast Species with the Bactec 9120 Automated System with Routine Use of Aerobic, Anaerobic, and Fungal Media. J. Clin. Microbiol.
46: 4029-4033
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Pfaller, M. A., Diekema, D. J.
(2007). Epidemiology of Invasive Candidiasis: a Persistent Public Health Problem. Clin. Microbiol. Rev.
20: 133-163
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Sandven, P., Bevanger, L., Digranes, A., Haukland, H. H., Mannsaker, T., Gaustad, P., the Norwegian Yeast Study Group,
(2006). Candidemia in Norway (1991 to 2003): Results from a Nationwide Study. J. Clin. Microbiol.
44: 1977-1981
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Alcoba-Florez, J., Mendez-Alvarez, S., Cano, J., Guarro, J., Perez-Roth, E., del Pilar Arevalo, M.
(2005). Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of Candida nivariensis sp. nov., a Possible New Opportunistic Fungus. J. Clin. Microbiol.
43: 4107-4111
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Thuret, G, Carricajo, A, Vautrin, A C, Raberin, H, Acquart, S, Garraud, O, Gain, P, Aubert, G
(2005). Efficiency of blood culture bottles for the fungal sterility testing of corneal organ culture media. Br J Ophthalmol
89: 586-590
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
George, B. J., Horvath, L. L., Hospenthal, D. R.
(2005). Effect of Inoculum Size on Detection of Candida Growth by the BACTEC 9240 Automated Blood Culture System Using Aerobic and Anaerobic Media. J. Clin. Microbiol.
43: 433-435
[Abstract]
[Full Text]