Evaluation of three commercially available blood culture systems for cultivation of Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori is unable to grow in regular blood culture systems, including the BACTEC (Johnston Laboratories), Septi-Chek (Hoffman-La Roche), and Bacto (Difco) systems. We tested three blood culture systems used for fastidious organisms: brucella broth with SPS and CO2 (Becton Dickinson), biphasic brain heart infusion agar or broth (Becton Dickinson), and supplemented peptone broth (Vacutainer). Blood culture bottles were inoculated with H. pylori and human blood and were then incubated by routine diagnostic laboratory procedures. All three blood culture systems were able to sustain the growth of H. pylori, but brucella broth had the highest CFU per milliliter after 72 h. We conclude that a diagnostic laboratory should be able to detect H. pylori bacteremia in a majority of cases by using brucella blood culture bottles.