COMPARISON OF ROUTINE VS. BACT/ALERT BLOOD CULTURE IN A SAME 6MONTHS OF 2 CONTINUOUS YEARS AMONG PATIENTS WHO REFERRED TO PAYVAND CLINICAL & SPECIALTY LAB

Background and Aim: The results of blood culture in critical patients is important for treatment.In routine blood culture at least 3 weeks of incubation for special bacteria is needed. In comparison, in automated systems such as BacTech or Bact/Alerts by using special blood bottles with antibacterial inhibitors only incubation for 3-5 days even for fastidious bacteria is recommended. So, the aim of this study was comparison of routine Vs. automated blood culture methods in a same 6 months during 2 continuous years among patients who referred to Payvand Clinical & Specialty Lab in Tehran.Methods:The manual blood culture was routine in this Lab until December 2016. At this time, the microbiology section was armed to automated Bact/ Alert system. To evaluate the effect of automated system Vs. manual method at the same 6 months in 2 continuous years( Nov-Jun 2016-2017), all blood cultures which were submitted in this private laboratory, were grabbed to comparison.Results:9 blood culture submitted in 2016 and all were negative by manual method vs. to 19 blood cultures which were submitted in the same selected time in 2017 . Of them, 15 were negative and 4 were positive of both gram negative and positive bacteria .Conclusion:However. different conditions may effect on the results including the number of patients who refered to this laboratory but all positive results were detected by Bact/Alert during a couple days. So, using this system in all clinical laboratories is recommended.

Keywords:

blood culture , critical illness , clinical laboratory techniques