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Preparation of a Blood Culture Pellet for Rapid Bacterial Identification and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing
Published on: October 15, 2014
Effective and Rapid Microbial Identification in Pediatric Osteoarticular Infections Using Blood Culture Bottles
Chang Ho Shin1, Chaemoon Lim2, Taek Soo Kim3
1Divisions of Pediatric Orthopaedics (C.H.S., T.-J.C., I.H.C., and W.J.Y.), and Pediatrics (E.H.C.), Seoul National University Children's Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Insights
The blood culture bottle (BCB) system significantly improves microbial identification rates and reduces time for pediatric osteoarticular infections. This method requires smaller specimens than traditional swab and tissue cultures.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Microbiology
- Clinical Diagnostics
Background:
- Accurate detection of pathogens is crucial for treating pediatric osteoarticular infections.
- Obtaining adequate specimen volumes from pediatric patients can be challenging.
- The study evaluates the efficacy of the blood culture bottle (BCB) system in this population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the effectiveness of the blood culture bottle (BCB) system for pediatric osteoarticular infections.
- To compare BCB cultures with conventional swab and tissue cultures.
- To determine if BCB cultures require smaller specimen volumes and yield faster identification.
Main Methods:
- Prospective analysis of pediatric patients with osteoarticular infections (August 2016 - October 2019).
- Inoculation of pediatric BCBs and general BCBs with infected fluid/tissue using needles.
- Collection of conventional swab and tissue samples from the same site for comparison.
Main Results:
- BCB cultures showed a higher microbial identification rate (68%) compared to swab (45%) and tissue cultures (38%).
- Nine patients (23%) had positive results exclusively with BCB cultures.
- BCB cultures reduced the time for microbial identification to 3.5 days, compared to 4.3-4.4 days for conventional methods.
Conclusions:
- The BCB culture system enhances microbial identification rates in pediatric osteoarticular infections.
- BCB cultures significantly decrease the time required for pathogen identification.
- This method allows for smaller specimen volumes, overcoming a key challenge in pediatric diagnostics.
Background:
The detection and identification of pathogenic microorganisms are essential for the treatment of osteoarticular infection. However, obtaining a sufficient amount of specimen from pediatric patients is often difficult. Herein, we aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the blood culture bottle (BCB) system in pediatric osteoarticular infections. We hypothesized that our BCB culture method is superior to the conventional swab and tissue culture methods in terms of required specimen size, incubation time, and microbial identification rate.
Methods:
We analyzed the prospectively collected data of pediatric patients who underwent surgical treatment for osteoarticular infections between August 2016 and October 2019. Four needles were dipped in the infected fluid or tissue during the surgical procedure as soon as the infected area was exposed and were used to inoculate 2 aerobic pediatric BCBs and 2 anaerobic general BCBs. We also collected 2 conventional swab samples and 2 tissue samples from the identical area. The microbial identification rate and the time required for identification were compared between BCB, swab, and tissue cultures.
Results:
Forty patients constituted the study group; 13 patients had osteomyelitis, 17 patients had septic arthritis, and 10 patients had both. Of these 40 patients, the microbial identification rate was higher with BCB cultures (27 [68%]) than with swab cultures (18 [45%]; p = 0.004) or tissue cultures (15 [38%]; p < 0.001). Nine samples (9 patients [23%]) were only positive in the BCB culture. Positive microbial growth was not detected with conventional culture methods when microorganisms did not grow on the BCB culture. Compared with swab culture (4.3 ± 1.1 days; p < 0.001) or tissue culture (4.4 ± 1.1 days; p < 0.001), the BCB culture reduced the time required for microbial identification (3.5 ± 0.9 days).
Conclusions:
In pediatric osteoarticular infections, the BCB culture system improved the microbial identification rate, reduced the time to identification, and permitted a smaller-volume specimen, compared with traditional culture systems.
Level Of Evidence:
Diagnostic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
