introduction: umbilical cord blood (cb) has been identified as a rich source for hematopoietic stem cells (hscs), and has provided an alternative to bone marrow transplantation. the use of ex vivo expanded cells has been suggested as a possible means to accelerate the speed of engraftment in cord blood (cb) transplantation. the main aim of our study is to find the best culture media and conditi...

BACKGROUND Meningitis causes substantial morbidity and mortality in hospitalized infants. There is no consensus on the ability of blood cultures to predict results from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures in hospitalized infants. METHODS We used the Pediatrix Medical Group database of infants discharged from 333 neonatal intensive care units between 1997 and 2011. We identified all infants wit...

Antibiotic neutralization in blood culture media from two automated systems was evaluated by measuring the recovery of organisms and times to detection in simulated cultures. Overall, BD Bactec Plus media (Bactec FX system) outperformed TREK 80 ml Redox media (VersaTREK system), although results suggest a relative rather than an absolute increased rate of recovery for the Bactec media.

Sepsis is a common cause of morbidity and death in critically ill patients, and blood culture samples are often drawn in an effort to identify a responsible pathogen. Blood culture results are usually negative, however, and even when positive are sometimes difficult to interpret. Distinguishing between true bacteremia and a false-positive blood culture result is important, but complicated by a ...