Effects of Blood Culture Aerobic/Anaerobic Bottle Collection Patterns from Both Sides of the Body on Positive Blood Culture Rate and Time-to-Positivity

Infect Drug Resist. 2022 Jun 10:15:2995-3004. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S358675. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Background: Although the principles for blood cultures (BCs) guidelines provide a recommendation for collection patterns, the complexity of clinical practice occasionally prompts clinicians to adopt non-standard collection patterns. Here, we investigate the influences of different BC collection patterns on detection of pathogens.

Methods: The BC collection patterns of 96 hospitals were surveyed online. And a retrospective study of BC data from a tertiary hospital was conducted.

Results: The results showed that 53.1% of hospitals adopted the recommended patterns. Among the 1439 episodes of true-positive BCs, 67.4% were found in both the left- and right-sided bottles; 58.2% were found in both aerobic and anaerobic bottles.

Conclusion: The present study suggested that the rate of standard collection patterns of blood culture was low and the non-standard collection patterns were associated with decreased detection of pathogens. Simultaneous collection of blood on the left and right sides was recommended as an effective pattern of BC collection.

Keywords: blood culture; collection pattern; online survey; pathogen detection; time-to-positivity.

Grants and funding

This study was financially supported by the Special Foundation for National Science and Technology Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2019FY101200, and 2019FY101204), the Foundation of Hebei Provincial Department of Finance (Grant No. 361004), and the International Scientific and Technology Corporation Program of Hebei Provincial Department of Science and Technology of China (Grant No.183977118D).