[Simultaneous haemocultures and diagnosis of catheter-related sepsis]

To determine the diagnosis value of simultaneous blood cultures.

The clinical criteria is not enough to establish catheter-related sepsis diagnosis and remotion or replacement of catheter are not necessary.

We evaluated 164 catheters used for total parenteral nutrition placement in 127 patients with cancer. Simultaneous blood samples--central and peripheral venous--were taken after seven at ten days of permanency or infection suspicion and compared with tip culture result.

Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated. The tip culture was the gold standard.

A positive central venous blood culture with negative peripheral blood culture result was sensitivity of 87.5% and specificity of 97.9%, an inverse result show a sensitivity of 62.5%. When both blood cultures were positive are correctly identified 83.3% of cases with a sensitivity of 93.9% and diagnostic correlation of 0.87.

The simultaneous blood cultures are high diagnostic value.