Loading...
Previous studies have suggested that obtaining two or three sets of blood cultures within a 24-hour period is sufficient to detect almost all bloodstream infections (BSIs) in adults. However, blood-culture systems have evolved substantially since many of these studies were performed. Now, investigators from two academic medical centers have examined the performance of two modern blood-culture systems (BACTEC 9240 and BacT/ALERT). From January 2004 through December 2005, the investigators enrolled all patients with positive blood cultures that they judged to represent true infection (rather than contamination). They included only patients from whom three or more blood cultures were obtained during a 24-hour period.
Among 629 unimicrobial BSI …