Culture with BACTEC Peds Plus/F bottle compared with conventional methods for detection of bacteria in synovial fluid

An evaluation was undertaken to determine the utility of the BACTEC Peds Pl us/F bottle and the BACTEC 9240 instrument (Becton Dickinson Diagnostic Ins trument Systems, Sparks, Md.) for the detection of clinically significant m icroorganisms in synovial fluid specimens. The Peds Plus/F bottle was used because in our laboratory the quantity of synovial fluid available for cult ure is frequently in the range of 0.5 to 3.0 mi. The culture results obtain ed with the Peds Plus/F bottle were compared to those obtained by a convent ional agar plate method for a total of 805 synovial fluid specimens. Microb ial growth was produced by 74 cultures (9.2%) from 60 patients, yielding a total of 77 microorganisms. Organisms were classified as pathogens (n = 62) , contaminants (n = 12), or indeterminate (n = 3) on the basis of a review of the patients' medical histories. Culture using BACTEC Peds Plus/F bottle detected statistically significantly more pathogens overall (62 versus 51 pathogens [P = 0.001]) and statistically fewer contaminants overall (1 vers us 11 contaminants [P = 0.0061]) than culture by the agar plate method. The se results indicate the superior performance of the BACTEC Peds Plus/F bott le over the conventional agar plate method for the detection of clinically significant microorganisms from synovial fluid specimens.