Correlation of growth of aerobic blood cultures in hypertonic broth with antibiotic therapy

The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms by which sucrose improves growth in a hypertonic medium for isolating aerobes from blood. Clinical blood cultures were made routinely in duplicate in plain broth consisting of brain heart infusion broth with sodium polyanetholesulfonate, gelatin, and penicillinase and the same broth with 20% sucrose added. The growth patterns of Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacteriaceae from plain and from hypertonic broth were correlated with the presence or absence of antimicrobial therapy in patients when the blood cultures were collected. In S. aureus bacteremias, 58.7% of the positive cultures collected during treatment of patients with beta-lactam antibiotics showed earlier growth or growth only in hypertonic broth, compared with 16.7% of the cultures taken during treatment with other antimicrobial agents (P less than 0.05) and 17.6% of the cultures made in antibiotic-free intervals (P less than 0.01). In the group of cultures yielding growth of Enterobacteriaceae, growth occurred earlier or solely in hypertonic broth in 28.9% of the cultures taken during treatment with beta-lactam antibiotics, compared with 15.7% of the cultures taken during treatment with other antimicrobial agents and 21.6% of the cultures collected in antibiotic-free intervals (differences not statistically significant). It is concluded that treatment with beta-lactam antibiotics is an important reason for the improved growth of S. aureus from hypertonic broth, but other factors are also involved.