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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2001, p. 2079-2082, Vol. 39, No. 6
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.6.2079-2082.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Three Days of Incubation May Be Sufficient for Routine Blood Cultures with BacT/Alert FAN Blood Culture Bottles

Paul P. Bourbeau* and Janice K. Pohlmandagger

Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pennsylvania

Received 12 January 2001/Returned for modification 22 February 2001/Accepted 27 March 2001

BacT/Alert FAN blood culture bottles have been shown to enhance the recovery of bacteria and yeast from blood compared with standard BacT/Alert bottles. It is well established that standard BacT/Alert blood culture bottles require no more than 5 days of incubation for the detection of routine bacteria and yeast. It is less clear, however, whether FAN bottles also routinely require 5 days of incubation. To address this question, we recently reviewed the results of 17,887 blood culture sets collected in FAN blood culture bottles at Geisinger Medical Center. Of these cultures, 1,780 were positive for bacteria or yeast, yielding a total of 1,242 clinically significant isolates. The numbers of isolates recovered on days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were as follows: (values in parentheses are percentages of total significant isolates): 877 (71%), 269 (22%), 65 (5%), 18 (1%) and, 13 (1%), respectively. In total, 97.5% of all clinically significant isolates were detected in the first 3 days of incubation. Of the 31 significant isolates detected on day 4 or 5 of incubation, 17 were detected in concurrent blood cultures within the first 3 days of incubation. Chart reviews were conducted for the 13 patients with the remaining 14 isolates detected on day 4 or 5 to determine whether therapy was changed due to this blood culture result. Therapy was changed for only 1 patient. These results suggest that it may not be necessary to routinely incubate FAN blood culture bottles for more than 3 days.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Laboratory Medicine, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA 17822-0131. Phone: (570) 271-7467. Fax: (570) 271-6105. E-mail: pbourbeau{at}geisinger.edu.

dagger Present address: FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Rockville, MD 20857.


Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2001, p. 2079-2082, Vol. 39, No. 6
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.6.2079-2082.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



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