Clinical Usefulness of Routine Use of Anaerobic Blood Culture Bottle / 대한임상미생물학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Blood culture for diagnosis of bacteremia and fungemia comprises aerobic and anaerobic cultures. The clinical utility of routine anaerobic blood culture has been questioned for a long time and was evaluated in this study. METHODS: A total of 9,028 positive blood cultures were collected from adults at four university-affiliated hospitals. We recorded the species distribution according to growth in aerobic or anaerobic culture. RESULTS: Among the 9,028 positive results, 3,239 cases (35.9%) occurred in aerobic culture, 1,543 cases (17.1%) in anaerobic culture and 4,246 cases (47.0%) in both cultures. The species grown only in the anaerobic cultures consisted of 81.4% facultative anaerobes, 2.0% strict anaerobes, 8.5% strict aerobes, and 8.1% yeasts. CONCLUSION: Routine use of paired aerobic/anaerobic blood culture is essential because a considerable number of facultative anaerobes and yeasts grow only in anaerobic blood culture. Strict aerobes and fungi were more commonly isolated in the anaerobic bottles than were strict anaerobes.