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Updated: Dec 25, 2025
Novel Diagnostics in Revision Arthroplasty: Implant Sonication and Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction
Published on: December 3, 2017
How should microbiology laboratories interpret cultures of the sonicate of closed needleless connectors?
María Jesús Pérez-Granda1, José María Barrio2, Raquel Cruces3
1Department of Anesthesiology, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain; CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias-CIBERES (CB06/06/0058), Madrid, Spain; Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain; Department of Nursing. School of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Introduction:
Our objective was to determine whether there is a cut-off in the needleless connectors' (NCs) cultures that when combined with skin cultures it was as efficient as conventional superficial cultures to rule-out catheter colonization (CC) and catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI).
Methods:
During 10 months, we collected samples and then we analyzed the validity values of skin+NCs cultures for CC and CRBSI considering the best cut-off showing at least >90% of specificity to have a high negative predictive value using a ROC curve.
Results:
We collected a total of 167 catheters. The optimal cut-off of NCs culture was 1000cfu/NC. The validity values for CC and CRBSI combining skin cultures and NCs cultures using the selected cut-off were, respectively: S, 42.9%/16.7%; SP, 83.6%/75.8%; PPV, 27.3%/2.5%; and NPV, 91.0%/96.0%.
Conclusions:
The combination of skin cultures and quantitative NCs cultures could be used for ruling-out CC and CRBSI.
