Etiologic Structure of Bloodstream Infections

Abstract

Objective: to assess the etiological structure of bacteremia in various pathological conditions. Material and methods. To check blood sterility, we analyzed results of 4548 blood tests of patients with lower respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, endocarditis, burns, cancer, fever of unknown etiology, sepsis. Cultural blood analysis was performed by means of the traditional bacteriological method or using an automated hemocultivator. Results. We isolated 477 clinically significant blood cultures. Gram-positive microorganisms prevailed over gram-negative in terms of the isolation rate, and fungemia was observed considerably most rarely (4.4%). Microbial inoculation found by the automated method was 1.5 times as high as that found by the traditional two-phase medium (14.7 and 9.5%, respectively). The etiological structure of microorganisms isolated as blood cultures in various nosological forms was assessed. Conclusion. We have revealed the prevalence of coagulase-negative staphylococci in patients with fever of unknown etiology (53.7 %), lower respiratory tract infections (39.5 %), endocarditis (31.4 %), burns (30.5 %) compared to other nosological forms. Enterobacteria were isolated with higher frequency in bacteremia in patients with malignant tumors (30.0 %) and urinary system infections (29.4 %), and gram-negative non-fermenting bacteria - with the highest specific weight in the isolated hemoculture associated with burn disease (31.6 %) and urinary system infections (29.4 %), enterococci - with greater frequency in bacteremia in patients with endocarditis (23.5 %).