CONTROLLED EVALUATION OF BACT ALERT STANDARD AEROBIC AND FAN AEROBIC BLOOD CULTURE BOTTLES FOR DETECTION OF BACTEREMIA AND FUNGEMIA

A new medium, FAN, designed to enhance the recovery of microorganisms, has been developed for the BacT/Alert blood culture system (Organon T eknika Corp., Durham, N.C.). We compared the yield and speed of detect ion of microorganisms in 6,847 adequately filled paired aerobic standa rd and FAN bottles at four university hospitals. Of 499 clinically sig nificant microorganisms isolated from one or both bottles, significant ly more Staphylococcus aureus isolates (P < 0.001), coagulase-negative staphylococci (P < 0.001), yeasts (P < 0.01), and all microorganisms combined (P < 0.001) were recovered from the FAN bottles. Overall, the speeds of detection of positive cultures did not differ between the t wo medium formulations; mean times to detection in the standard and FA N bottles were 16.1 and 16.0 h, respectively. When a subset of patient s on antimicrobial therapy was evaluated, significantly enhanced yield from the FAN bottle was evident for staphylococci. Overall, the FAN b ottle outperformed the standard aerobic BacT/Alert bottle.