Can Blood Culture Contaminaton Cloud Fungal Positivity?

Objective: Blood culture (BC) is gold standard for diagnosis of fungemia. Contamination BC a major problem worldwide, since it may delay actual diagnosis. The aim this study was to evaluate “contaminant” vials with prolonged incubation (max 30 days) antimicrobial supplemented media observe any mycological growth. Materials and Methods: Routine BCs optained patients XXX Hospital year period were included. Render System BC12-8 (Render Biotech Co. Ltd., Shenzhen, China) used. Contaminated reincubated conventionally-inoculated weekly four weeks total. In case growth, identifications done by PhoenixTM 100 system (Becton Dickinson, MA, USA) cornmeal tween 80 agar (RTA Laboratories, Kocaeli, Turkey). Antifungal susceptibility testing applied CLSI disk diffusion method. Results: 3.9% (235 sets additional 138 vials) total 6047 contaminated. Only one vial from central venous catheter showed fungal growth within the first week conventional inoculation (>8th day incubation). isolate identified as Candida guilliermondii complex susceptible caspofungin. Latter set patient positive in 3rd incubation. Conclusion: International guidelines recommend