Blood Cultures Of Pediatric Patients Research Articles

Assessing the need for anaerobic medium for the recovery of clinically significant blood culture isolates in children

We examined the sensitivity of several BACTEC media options for the detection of bacteremia and fungemia in children at two pediatric health care facilities. At one institution a single aerobic bottle containing PEDS Plus medium was as sensitive in identifying positive blood cultures as the combination of aerobic and anaerobic media (77% vs. 80%; P = 1.0). When data from both facilities were combined, a blood culture set containing both aerobic and anaerobic media detected significantly more positive blood cultures than any single aerobic medium. However, the aerobic/anaerobic bottle combination was not significantly better than a blood culture set containing two aerobic media and, in absolute terms, the latter identified more cases of bacteremia. Of the 116 clinically significant episodes of bacteremia identified in this study, only 1 was caused by an anaerobic bacterium. We conclude that the routine use of anaerobic media for blood cultures of pediatric patients might be unnecessary but that the use of two different aerobic media could increase the sensitivity of the BACTEC blood culture system.

"Campylobacter upsaliensis" isolated from blood cultures of pediatric patients.

Seventeen campylobacters isolated from cultures of blood samples of 16 bacteremic patients were susceptible to cephalothin and were either catalase negative or had only weak catalase activity (CNW strains) and were classified as "Campylobacter upsaliensis" (K. Sandstedt and J. Ursing, XIV Int. Congr. Microbiol., p. B8-17, 1986). All of the patients had predisposing conditions, and 10 patients were less than or equal to 12 months old, indicating that "C. upsaliensis" is an opportunistic pathogen of humans.

Serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from blood cultures at Boston City Hospital between 1979 and 1982.

Serotypes of pneumococci causing bacteremia were examined from January 1979 through December 1982. Of the 271 isolates recorded, 52% were from adults and 48% were from children. The rate of pneumococcal bacteremia for adults was 2.67 cases per 1,000 admissions; rates were not calculated for pediatric patients. The six most common pediatric types or groups (14, 19, 18, 6, 4, and 9) accounted for 90% of the total pediatric isolates, and the six most common adult types or groups (12, 9, 8, 4, 3, and 6) made up 55.3% of the total adult isolates. More than 96% of the pneumococcal types isolated from the blood cultures of pediatric patients are present in the 14-valent pneumococcal vaccine, compared with 72.7% of the adult isolates. The results demonstrate that most cases of pneumococcal bacteremia are caused by capsular types or groups present in the current vaccine and that minor changes in the types of pneumococci causing bacteremia have occurred during the past decade.