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Editorial
. 2022 Jun;17(2):311-316.
doi: 10.26574/maedica.2022.17.2.311.

Blood Culture Contamination Rate as a Quality Indicator - a Prospective Observational Study

Rathod Gunvanti  1 , Jyothi Tadi Lakshmi  2 , Kaliappan Ariyanachi  3 , Mallamgunta Saranya  4 , Sarvam Kamlakar  2 , Varatharajan Sakthivadivel  5 , Archana Gaur  6 , Shalam Shireen Nikhat  2 , Triveni Sagar  7 , Kesavulu Chenna  7 , Meena S Vidya  8
Affiliations
Editorial

Blood Culture Contamination Rate as a Quality Indicator - a Prospective Observational Study

Rathod Gunvanti et al. Maedica (Bucur). 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Introduction: Blood culture test is the gold standard test to diagnose bloodstream infections, but contamination is the main problem in this valuable test. False positive results in blood cultures are mainly due to contamination that occurs mostly during pre-analytical procedures like sample collection and sometimes during sample processing. Materials and method:Our prospective observational study was undertaken at St. Theresa Hospital, Hyderabad, India, during January 2020-June 2020. Blood cultures received from inpatient departments (IPD) and outpatient departments (OPD) are included. Sample size: The contamination rate was calculated by dividing the total number of contaminated blood cultures by the total number of cultures multiplied by 100. Results:Blood culture contamination rate is 2.4%, which is within the limit as per the standard guideline. Conclusion:Contamination occurred mainly due to improper disinfection of the skin and environmental contamination.

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Figures

TABLE 1.
TABLE 1.
Total number of blood cultures with true positives, contaminants and negatives
TABLE 2.
TABLE 2.
Age-wise and sex-wise distribution of contaminants in blood culture
FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Sex-wise distribution of contaminants in blood culture
TABLE 3.
TABLE 3.
Ward wise contamination rate
TABLE 4.
TABLE 4.
Organisms isolated from the blood cultures
FIGURE 2.
FIGURE 2.
Questionnaire-based route cause analysis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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