[Clinical Evaluation of BacT/ALERT VIRTUO Blood Culture System for Detection of Anaerobic Bacteria]

BacT/ALERT VIRTUO is the first fully automated blood culture analysis system that provides complete automation of bottle loading, registration, and retrieval. In April 2017, we changed the blood culture device from BacT/ALERT 3D to BacT/ALERT VIRTUO and the blood culture bottles from SA·SN culture bottles to FA·FN Plus culture bottles, and examined the detection status of anaerobic bacteria before and after the introduction of BacT/ALERT VIRTUO. The target period was set at five years for each of the 3D usage period (2012 to 2016) and VIRTUO usage period (2017 to 2021). The overall positive rate of blood cultures was 11% for 3D and 15% for VIRTUO, and the positive rate of anaerobic bacteria was 0.77% for 3D and 1.15% for VIRTUO, showing a significant increase after the introduction of VIRTUO. In addition, the median detection time for all anaerobic bacteria was 52.8 hours with 3D and 38.4 hours with VIRTUO, indicating a reduction of 14.4 hours with VIRTUO, enabling early detection of bacteria after the introduction of VIRTUO. By switching to VIRTUO and FA/FN Plus culture bottles, the positive rate for anaerobic bacteria improved and detection times were also shortened. Rapid and accurate detection of bacteria from blood cultures is important for the appropriate use of antibiotics, and BacT/ALERT VIRTUO is a useful tool fou this purpose.