RESUMEN
Time to positivity (TTP) for blood culture bottles incubated in the BacT/Alert Virtuo instrument was compared to the BacT/Alert 3D. TTP was significantly shorter with the Virtuo (median 16.2 h) than 3D (median 21.1 h; P < 0.001). Switching from 3D to Virtuo significantly improved TTP in this multicenter hospital setting study. IMPORTANCE Sepsis affects millions of people around the world each year, and accounts for a significant number of deaths in hospital intensive care units (ICU). Timely diagnosis is key to decreasing morbidity and mortality. One important element of sepsis diagnosis is organism detection using blood cultures. In this study, we examined the impact of implementing the BacT/Alert Virtuo automated blood culture detection system on time to positivity in an ICU patient population at a multicenter hospital setting.
RESUMEN
The Copan ESwab system was evaluated for its ability to maintain the viability of pathogenic fungi. Tests followed the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) document M40-A2 roll-plate method at room and refrigerator temperatures. A system was devised for standardizing homogeneous inoculum suspensions of variously sized conidia and sporangiospores of filamentous fungi. A total of 19 clinical and reference strains were standardized to a 0.5 McFarland turbidity standard with a simple photometer. Corresponding optical densities were measured with a spectrophotometer. Colony counts equal to or greater than those seen at time zero were obtained for the entire test panel. Results indicate that the Copan ESwab system effectively maintains prevalent opportunistic fungal organisms for at least 48 h.