EVALUATION OF THE AUTOMATED BACT-ALERT SYSTEM FOR PEDIATRIC BLOOD CULTURING

The Organon Teknika BacT/Alert (Organon Teknika, Durham, NC), using th e Pedi-BacT 20 mt aerobic bottle (BPBCS) was compared to the Wampole I solator (WI) 1.5 Microbial tube (Wampole Laboratories, Cranbury, NJ), for detection and recovery of pediatric pathogens. The BPBCS continuou sly monitors culture bottles for changes in CO2 concentrations, while WI cultures are examined twice daily for appearance of colonial growth on agar media. Of 5,175 paired blood cultures, 383 pathogens were rec overed from 606 positive cultures. There were 272 pathogens recovered by both systems, 64 from BPBCS only, and 47 from WI only. Overall reco very rates were 88% for BPBCS and 83% for WI. There was no significant difference between the two systems in detection or times to positivit y of staphylococci, Enterobacteriaceae, or pseudomonads. Trends toward better recovery of streptococci (20 vs. 10) and fastidious microaerop hiles (3 vs. 0) were found with BPBCS, whereas more slow ly growing pa thogens (Rochalimaea henselae [1], Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare [1]) were recovered by WI only, but because of their lower frequency d id not achieve statistical significance. Detection of Haemophilus infl uenzae (14.9 hours in WI vs. 45.4 hours in BPBCS) was faster with WI. False positive plus contaminant cultures were detected in 5.9% BPBCS v ersus 1.5% WI. BPBCS offers detection of bacteremia at a rate comparab le to WI with advantages of automation.