Ann Clin Microbiol.  2014 Jun;17(2):35-41. 10.5145/ACM.2014.17.2.35.

Clinical Usefulness of Routine Use of Anaerobic Blood Culture Bottle

• Song SA
• Kim JH
• Shin JH
• Kim SH
• Lee NY
• Kim MN
• Kim S

• KMID: 1971092
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2014.17.2.35

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Blood culture for diagnosis of bacteremia and fungemia comprises aerobic and anaerobic cultures. The clinical utility of routine anaerobic blood culture has been questioned for a long time and was evaluated in this study.
METHODS
A total of 9,028 positive blood cultures were collected from adults at four university-affiliated hospitals. We recorded the species distribution according to growth in aerobic or anaerobic culture.
RESULTS
Among the 9,028 positive results, 3,239 cases (35.9%) occurred in aerobic culture, 1,543 cases (17.1%) in anaerobic culture and 4,246 cases (47.0%) in both cultures. The species grown only in the anaerobic cultures consisted of 81.4% facultative anaerobes, 2.0% strict anaerobes, 8.5% strict aerobes, and 8.1% yeasts.
CONCLUSION
Routine use of paired aerobic/anaerobic blood culture is essential because a considerable number of facultative anaerobes and yeasts grow only in anaerobic blood culture. Strict aerobes and fungi were more commonly isolated in the anaerobic bottles than were strict anaerobes.

Keyword

Bacteremia; Blood culture; Fungemia; Isolation

MeSH Terms

Adult
Bacteremia
Diagnosis
Fungemia
Fungi
Humans
Yeasts

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