The sensitivity and time to detection of Brucella melitensis by the BACTEC 9240 and the Isolator blood culture systems were compared in a prospective volume-controlled study. Blood sample aliquots, obtained from children with suspected brucellosis, were inoculated into a BACTEC 9240 Peds Plus bottle and into an Isolator 1.5 Microbial Tube. Overall, 122 pairs of blood samples for culture were ob...

Detection and identification of anaerobic bacteria in blood cultures (BC) is a well-recognized challenge in clinical microbiology. We studied 100 clinical anaerobic BC isolates to evaluate the performance of BacT/ALERT-FN, -FN Plus (BioMérieux), BACTEC-Plus and -Lytic (Becton Dickinson BioSciences) BC bottles in detection and time to detection (TTD) of anaerobic bacteria. BACTEC Lytic had highe...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the BACTEC NR-16A and NR-17A media were more effective than the BACTEC NR-6A and NR-7A media in recovering organisms from the blood of patients undergoing antimicrobial therapy. A total of 986 sets of four blood culture bottles were compared, giving 141, 174, 93, and 104 isolates with BACTEC NR-6A, NR-16A, NR-7A, and NR-17A, respectively. BACTE...

We evaluated the efficacy of a PCR-reverse cross-blot hybridization assay, a test which permits identification of mycobacteria by means of species-specific probes and a Mycobacterium-specific probe, for early detection of negative BACTEC MGIT 960 mycobacterial cultures. Aliquots of 549 cultures were collected 7 days after the culture media were inoculated with various clinical specimens and tes...

The critical concentration (CC) for ethambutol testing on the Bactec MGIT 960 M. tuberculosis susceptibility testing has been questioned in recent publications. In this study, we correlate susceptibility results from the Bactec 460, MGIT 960 and embB gene sequencing to determine if the Bactec MGIT 960 adequately detects ethambutol resistance. We discovered discrepancies between the methods that...

Mycoplasma hominis has been implicated as an important cause of septicaemia. There have been reported variances in the ability of blood culture systems to support the growth of this organism. In this study the ability of the BACTEC 9000 series automated system to grow and detect M hominis was assessed. Three of five wild M hominis strains grew in the BACTEC Anaerobic Plus/F medium but growth wa...

Background — Presence of microorganisms in sterile body sites leads to life-threatening infections. For early and accurate diagnosis of those infections, cultures of the sterile fluids have to be done. These cultures can not always detect the causative agents due to insufficent number or fastidious growing of the probable microorganisms in the material. Objectives — In this study, it was aimed ...

We evaluated the ability of a PCR assay to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) from positive BACTEC 12B broth cultures. A total of 107 sputum samples were processed and inoculated into Ogawa slants and BACTEC 12B vials. At a growth index (GI) > or=30, 1.0 ml of the 12B broth was removed, stored, and assayed with PCR. Molecular results were compared to those obtained by phenotypic...

A variety of blood culture media were compared to determine the optimal method for the isolation of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare (MAI) from the blood of patients with AIDS. Simulated laboratory blood cultures and clinical blood cultures were tested. Glucose broth, Bactec aerobic medium, Kirschner's medium, and Bactec Middlebrook medium supported the growth of MAI. The Isolator system, a l...

The BACTEC NR730 blood culture system is a commercially available system which utilizes infrared spectrophotometry to detect bacterial growth in broth media inoculated with the blood specimen. The objective of this study is to compare this system with the conventional system used in our laboratory. A total of 479 blood samples were collected from adult patients in the Klang TAR Hospital and ino...