Evaluation of an Antimicrobial Removal Device (ARD) for detection of septicemia

An Antimicrobial Removal Device (ARD) shown to inactivate 13 commonly used antimicrobial agents was used for processing blood samples before culture and compared with a conventional biphasic blood culture medium. 448 blood samples were processed using the ARD bottle with 472 parallel conventional cultures. The rates of clinically significant positive blood cultures were 6.9% and 8.9% respectively (not statistically significant). This study does not show any increased detection rate in ARD-processed cultures compared with conventional cultures in patients receiving antimicrobial agents.