UTILITY OF FUNGAL BLOOD CULTURES FOR PATIENTS WITH AIDS

This study was designed to define the clinical utility of fungal blood cultures for human immunodeficiency virus type I-infected individuals . A retrospective chart review was performed for all patients admitted to an inpatient AIDS unit who had evidence of an invasive fungal infe ction. During a 25-month period, 1,162 fungal blood cultures were perf ormed for 322 patients. These cultures, along with bacterial blood cul tures, resulted in the isolation of fungi from 26 patients; 15 of thes e isolates were considered true pathogens. Routine blood cultures were positive for the fungal isolates in all 15 cases: Candida species and Candida glabrata (6 cases), Cryptococcus neoformans (7), Coccidioides immitis (1), and Histoplasma capsulatum (1). All invasive fungal infe ctions were diagnosed by other means before fungal blood cultures were reported as positive. The results of this study suggest that the rout ine performance of such cultures in clinical practice should be reeval uated.