Ml. Wilson et al., CONTROLLED EVALUATION OF BACT ALERT STANDARD ANAEROBIC AND FAN ANAEROBIC BLOOD CULTURE BOTTLES FOR THE DETECTION OF BACTEREMIA AND FUNGEMIA, Journal of clinical microbiology, 33(9), 1995, pp. 2265-2270
FAN medium was formulated to improve microbial recovery, particularly
for fastidious microorganisms and for microorganisms causing sepsis in
patients receiving antimicrobial therapy, In a controlled clinical ev
aluation performed at four university-affiliated hospitals, FAN anaero
bic bottles were compared with standard anaerobic bottles for yield, s
peed of detection of microbial growth, and detection of septic episode
s, A total of 10,431 blood culture sets were received; both anaerobic
bottles of 7,694 blood culture sets were adequately filled with blood,
Altogether, 925 isolates were recovered: 557 that were the cause of s
epsis, 99 that were indeterminate as the cause of sepsis, and 269 cont
aminants, More Staphylococcus aureus (P < 0.001), coagulase-negative s
taphylococci (P < 0.001), Escherichia coli (P < 0.02), and all microor
ganisms combined (P < 0.005) were recovered from FAN bottles; more non
fermentative gram-negative bacilli (P < 0.05), Torulopsis glabrata (P
< 0.001), and other yeasts (P < 0.01) were recovered from standard bot
tles, Growth of S. aureus (P < 0.001), coagulase-negative staphylococc
i (P < 0.001), Enterococcus faecalis (P < 0.025), streptococci other t
han Streptococcus pneumoniae (P < 0.01), and all microorganisms combin
ed (P < 0.001) was detected earlier in standard bottles; growth of mor
e isolates of E. coli (P < 0.05) and anaerobic bacteria (P < 0.01) was
detected earlier in FAN bottles. The mean times to detection were 14.
2 and 16.1 h for standard and FAN bottles, respectively, More septic e
pisodes caused by S. aureus (P < 0.001), coagulase-negative staphyloco
cci (P < 0.005), members of the family Enterobacteriaceae (P < 0.02),
and all microorganisms combined (P < 0.02) were detected in FAN bottle
s; more septic episodes caused by nonfermentative gram-negative bacill
i (P < 0.025) and yeasts (P < 0.005) were detected in standard bottles
, In summary, more isolates (except for strict aerobes) were recovered
from FAN bottles than from standard anaerobic bottles, Similarly, sig
nificantly more septic episodes (except for those caused by strict aer
obes) were detected with FAN bottles than with standard anaerobic bott
les, With the exception of E. coli and anaerobic bacteria, growth of m
ore isolates was detected earlier in standard anaerobic bottles.