This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hay, J. E. Articles by Wilhelm, M. P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hay, J. E. Articles by Wilhelm, M. P.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 01 1996, 34-37, Vol 34, No. 1
Copyright © 1996 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Clinical comparison of isolator, Septi-Chek, nonvented tryptic soy broth, and direct agar plating combined with thioglycolate broth for diagnosing spontaneous bacterial peritonitis

JE Hay, FR Cockerill 3rd, D Kaese, EA Vetter, PC Wollan, J Rakela and MP Wilhelm
Divison of Gastroenterology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis is a life-threatening complication of cirrhotic ascites. Optimal patient management depends on the isolation of the causal organism from ascitic fluid. To evaluate culture techniques for the diagnosis of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, we prospectively compared three blood culture system, the Isolator system, a lysis-centrifugation system, the Septi-Chek system, a biphasic culture system, and a nonvented tryptic soy broth system, all inoculated at the bedside, and our standard method of direct inoculation of specimens after transport to the laboratory onto agar plates and into thioglycolate broth. The results showed that the Septi- Chek and nonvented tryptic soy broth systems each recovered statistically significantly more pathogens than either the Isolator system (P = 0.0084) or the standard method (P = 0.00098). The Isolator system recovered more pathogens than the standard plate method, but this difference was not statistically significant. Both the Isolator system and the standard plate method recovered more contaminating microorganisms than the Septi-Chek or nonvented tryptic soy broth system. The Isolator system required the most processing time compared with the processing times required by any other method.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Yaramis, A., Tekes, S., Bilici, M. (2000). Diagnostic Performance of Amplified Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Direct Test in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Children With Tuberculosis Meningitis. Pediatrics 106: 162a-162 [Full Text]