J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2006 Oct;17(5):463-470.

The Usefulness of Blood Culture in Febrile Immunocompetent Patients at Emergency Department

• Kim HJ
• Moon JM
• Chun BJ

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study was performed to determine the usefulness of blood culture in the management of febrile immunocompetent patients presenting emergency department.
METHODS
We prospectively analysed the medical characteristic and the result of blood culture of febrile immunocompetent patients who presented to Chonnam National University Hospital emergency center form April 2005 to October 2005.
RESULTS
The study included 182 patients. The characteristic associated with the positive result of blood culture on multivariate analysis was the low initial level of albumin. Of the 182 culture, only 26 were true positive(14.3%). Of them, the result of blood culture influenced management in five patients (2.7%).
CONCLUSION
The blood cultures has usually been ordered in febrile immunocompetent patients at emergency department has the limited usefulness. The emergency physician who initially treats them has to consider this limitation of it.

Keyword

Blood; Culture; Emergency; Fever

MeSH Terms

Emergencies*
Emergency Service, Hospital*
Fever
Humans
Jeollanam-do
Multivariate Analysis
Prospective Studies