Comparative Evaluation of Conventional Blood Culture with Bactec 9050 for Bacterial Isolates in Clinically Suspected Cases of Fever of Unknown Origin

Background: Patients with fever of unknown origin (FUO) are elusive and challenging clinical cases. Timely detection and identification of blood borne pathogen is one of the most important functions of microbiology laboratory. Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of BACTEC 9050 in comparison to conventional blood culture for detection of bacterial isolates in clinically suspected cases of fever of unknown origin. Material and methods: Blood samples from 100 suspected cases of fever of unknown origin (FUO) were subjected to conventional blood culture and BACTEC 9050 culture system.. Results: Out of 100 suspected cases, 46% cases were culture positive with 80.43% pathogenic bacterial isolates comprising of 54.05% gram positive and 45.94% gram negative isolates. Predominant gram positive isolates were 35% coagulase negative Staphylococcus and 30% Staphylococcus aureus. Gram negative isolates were 29.41% Salmonella typhi followed by 17.64% E coli. BACTEC 9050 was observed to be sensitive (100% ) as compared to conventional blood culture (67.56%) . Mean time to detection of significant pathogens was significantly less with the BACTEC 9050 than with conventional media. Conclusion: BACTEC 9050 proved as a reliable and fast method to identify the blood stream pathogens in blood culture as compared to conventional culture methods.