Skip to main content
  • ASM
    • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
    • Applied and Environmental Microbiology
    • Clinical Microbiology Reviews
    • Clinical and Vaccine Immunology
    • EcoSal Plus
    • Eukaryotic Cell
    • Infection and Immunity
    • Journal of Bacteriology
    • Journal of Clinical Microbiology
    • Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
    • Journal of Virology
    • mBio
    • Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
    • Microbiology Resource Announcements
    • Microbiology Spectrum
    • Molecular and Cellular Biology
    • mSphere
    • mSystems
  • Log in
  • My alerts
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current Issue
    • Accepted Manuscripts
    • COVID-19 Special Collection
    • Archive
    • Minireviews
  • For Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Scope
    • Editorial Policy
    • Submission, Review, & Publication Processes
    • Organization and Format
    • Errata, Author Corrections, Retractions
    • Illustrations and Tables
    • Nomenclature
    • Abbreviations and Conventions
    • Publication Fees
    • Ethics Resources and Policies
  • About the Journal
    • About JCM
    • Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Board
    • For Reviewers
    • For the Media
    • For Librarians
    • For Advertisers
    • Alerts
    • RSS
    • FAQ
  • Subscribe
    • Members
    • Institutions
  • ASM
    • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
    • Applied and Environmental Microbiology
    • Clinical Microbiology Reviews
    • Clinical and Vaccine Immunology
    • EcoSal Plus
    • Eukaryotic Cell
    • Infection and Immunity
    • Journal of Bacteriology
    • Journal of Clinical Microbiology
    • Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
    • Journal of Virology
    • mBio
    • Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
    • Microbiology Resource Announcements
    • Microbiology Spectrum
    • Molecular and Cellular Biology
    • mSphere
    • mSystems

User menu

  • Log in
  • My alerts
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Clinical Microbiology
publisher-logosite-logo

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current Issue
    • Accepted Manuscripts
    • COVID-19 Special Collection
    • Archive
    • Minireviews
  • For Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Scope
    • Editorial Policy
    • Submission, Review, & Publication Processes
    • Organization and Format
    • Errata, Author Corrections, Retractions
    • Illustrations and Tables
    • Nomenclature
    • Abbreviations and Conventions
    • Publication Fees
    • Ethics Resources and Policies
  • About the Journal
    • About JCM
    • Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Board
    • For Reviewers
    • For the Media
    • For Librarians
    • For Advertisers
    • Alerts
    • RSS
    • FAQ
  • Subscribe
    • Members
    • Institutions
Bacteriology

Innovation for Reducing Blood Culture Contamination: Initial Specimen Diversion Technique

Richard G. Patton, Timothy Schmitt
Richard G. Patton
1Clinical Laboratory, Northwest Hospital and Medical Center/University of Washington Medicine
2Department of Pathology, University of Washington
3Cellnetix Pathology and Laboratories, 1550 N. 115th Street, Seattle, Washington 98133
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: rpatton@MagnoliaMT.com
Timothy Schmitt
1Clinical Laboratory, Northwest Hospital and Medical Center/University of Washington Medicine
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
DOI: 10.1128/JCM.00910-10
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

We hypothesized that diversion of the first milliliter of venipuncture blood—the initial specimen diversion technique (ISDT)—would eliminate incompletely sterilized fragments of skin from the culture specimen and significantly reduce our blood culture contamination rate (R). We studied our hypothesis prospectively beginning with our control culture (C) definition: one venipuncture with two sequentially obtained specimens, 10 ml each, the first specimen (M1) for aerobic and the second (M2) for anaerobic media. The test ISDT culture (D) was identical, with the exception that each was preceded by diverting a 1-ml sample (DS) from the same venipuncture. During the first of two sequential 9-month periods, we captured D versus C data (n = 3,733), where DMX R and CMX R are R for D and C specimens. Our hypothesis predicted DS would divert soiled skin fragments from DM1, and therefore, CM1 R would be significantly greater than DM1 R. This was confirmed by CM1 R (30/1,061 [2.8%]) less DM1 R (37/2,672 [1.4%]; P = 0.005), which equals 1.4%. For the second 9-month follow-up period, data were compiled for all cultures (n = 4,143), where ADMX R is R for all (A) diversion specimens, enabling comparison to test ISDT. Our hypothesis predicted no significant differences for test ISDT versus all ISDT. This was confirmed by DM 1 R (37/2,672 [1.4%]) versus ADM 1 R (42/4,143 [1.0%]; P = 0.17) and DM2 R (21/2,672 [0.80%]) versus ADM2 R (39/4,143 [0.94%]; P = 0.50). We conclude that our hypothesis is valid: venipuncture needles soil blood culture specimens with unsterilized skin fragments and increase R, and ISDT significantly reduces R from venipuncture-obtained blood culture specimens.

  • Copyright © 2010 American Society for Microbiology
View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Download PDF
Citation Tools
Innovation for Reducing Blood Culture Contamination: Initial Specimen Diversion Technique
Richard G. Patton, Timothy Schmitt
Journal of Clinical Microbiology Nov 2010, 48 (12) 4501-4503; DOI: 10.1128/JCM.00910-10

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Print

Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Clinical Microbiology article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Innovation for Reducing Blood Culture Contamination: Initial Specimen Diversion Technique
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Clinical Microbiology
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Innovation for Reducing Blood Culture Contamination: Initial Specimen Diversion Technique
Richard G. Patton, Timothy Schmitt
Journal of Clinical Microbiology Nov 2010, 48 (12) 4501-4503; DOI: 10.1128/JCM.00910-10
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Top
  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • MATERIALS AND METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

KEYWORDS

blood
Microbiological Techniques
Specimen Handling

Related Articles

Cited By...

About

  • About JCM
  • Editor in Chief
  • Board of Editors
  • Editor Conflicts of Interest
  • For Reviewers
  • For the Media
  • For Librarians
  • For Advertisers
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • FAQ
  • Permissions
  • Journal Announcements

Authors

  • ASM Author Center
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Article Types
  • Resources for Clinical Microbiologists
  • Ethics
  • Contact Us

Follow #JClinMicro

@ASMicrobiology

       

ASM Journals

ASM journals are the most prominent publications in the field, delivering up-to-date and authoritative coverage of both basic and clinical microbiology.

About ASM | Contact Us | Press Room

 

ASM is a member of

Scientific Society Publisher Alliance

 

American Society for Microbiology
1752 N St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 737-3600

 

Copyright © 2021 American Society for Microbiology | Privacy Policy | Website feedback

Print ISSN: 0095-1137; Online ISSN: 1098-660X