The use of a radiometric technic for the rapid detection of contaminated tissue specimens from burned patients

The 14CO2-dependent BACTEC system for the detection of bacteria in fluid specimens was adapted for the semiquantitative bacteriologic screening of solid tissue samples from 33 burned patients. The radiometric system detected 87% of all specimens harboring > 10(5) organisms per gram of tissue and 100% of all heavily contaminated specimens (> 10(8) organisms per gram) within eight hours of incubation. The BACTEC radiometric system correlated well (98.1%) with conventional culture methods in the detection of all contaminated samples. No false-positive result was obtained from sterile tissue specimens.