Comparison of BACTEC™ blood culture media for the detection of fungemia

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether addition of the BACTEC (TM) Mycosis bottle to the standard BACTEC (TM) aerobic and anaerobic bottles contributed to a higher detection rate and a faster time to detection (TTD) of fungi. This was a retrospective cohort study of all patients with a positive blood culture with Candida species delivered to the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Denmark in the 8-year period 2006 through 2014. The patients had at least one BACTEC (TM) aerobic and one Mycosis bottle sampled at the same time and at least one of the bottles yielded growth of fungi. Among 184 patients included, 173 were examined using BACTEC (TM) aerobic, anaerobic and Mycosis bottles. The anaerobic vial generally had the lowest detection rate and the longest TTD. The detection rate of BACTEC (TM) aerobic plus anaerobic with the BACTEC (TM) Mycosis bottle was significantly higher than the detection rate of BACTEC (TM) aerobic plus anaerobic without BACTEC (TM) Mycosis bottle for all species after 1-5 days, and specially for Candida glabrata at 2, 3, 4 and 5 days. TTD for C. glabrata was significantly shorter for BACTEC (TM) Mycosis than TTD for BACTEC (TM) aerobic or anaerobic bottles after A 1/2 to 4 days. When combining first or only detection, the BACTEC (TM) Mycosis bottle had a significantly higher detection as compared to the aerobic bottle. Addition of the BACTEC (TM) Mycosis bottle to the standard BACTEC (TM) aerobic and anaerobic bottles significantly contributed to a higher detection rate and a faster TTD of fungemia.