Pitfalls in the rapid diagnosis of positive blood culture

Bacteraemia and sepsis are among the most serious health problems with an incidence that is increasing worldwide, and brings about considerable economic burden. Blood cultures have traditionally been considered as the gold standard and are of great diagnostic value in defining bacteraemia and sepsis. The introduction of automated blood culture systems has provided continuous growth monitoring and improved the yield and shortened the time to positivity. When blood cultures turn positive, how to process the positive blood culture bottles is an important task for the microbiological laboratory. Technicians are challenged to process flagged positive blood culture at different circumstances. This article addresses relevant pitfalls associated with positive blood culture. Microbiological laboratory should have guidelines and strategies that can provide appropriate handling of positive blood culture. (C) 2010 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins