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

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.