ArticlePloS one2017
Impact of Pre-Analytical Time on the Recovery of Pathogens from Blood Cultures: Results from a Large Retrospective Survey.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- An overview of positive cultures and clinical outcomes in septic patients: a sub-analysis of the Prehospital Antibiotics Against Sepsis (PHANTASi) trial.Critical care (London, England) · 2019Trial
- How Does the Time from Intraoperative Culture Harvest to Incubation Impact Culture Positivity in Orthopaedic Surgeries? A Case-Control Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- When Hours Matter: A 24/7 Laboratory and Fast-Track Diagnostic Pathway for Blood Cultures in Critical Patients.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A Systematic Review of Bacterial Sampling Collection for Veterinary Microbiology in Companion Animals.Veterinary sciences · 2026Review
- Veterinary blood culture diagnostic testing: methodology and results from a German single-center study on dogs (2014-2022).Journal of veterinary internal medicine · 2026Article
- Blood culture diagnostics - a comparative and experimental study on the impact of delayed incubation.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Clinical and Economic Outcomes Associated with Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Reporting and Dual-Card Testing in ICU Bloodstream Infections.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- Evaluation of a digital remote extraction analysis and monitoring tool for key performance indicators (KPIs) in the blood culture process.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2025Article
- Diagnostic stewardship in sepsis: minding the gap from the microbiology lab to ward.Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2025Review
- Less haste, more speed: Does delayed blood culture transport time lead to adverse incubation times or yield?The Journal of infection · 2025Article
- The Novel "RISC" Score as a Risk-prediction Model of Carbapenem-resistant Hospital-acquired Infections in Adult Sepsis Patients - A Prospective Observational Study.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2025Article
- Yield of Targeted Polymerase Chain Reaction in Probable Early-Onset Sepsis: A Prospective Cohort Study in Term and Near-Term Neonates With Negative Blood Culture Results.Open forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
- An assessment of the downstream implications of blood culture collection and transit.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2023Article
- Incidence of blood culture-related sepsis in neonates and antibiotics sensitivity of implicated organisms in a secondary healthcare facility in Ghana.Ghana medical journal · 2023Article
- Improving Blood Culture Quality with a Medical Staff Educational Program: A Prospective Cohort Study.Infection and drug resistance · 2023Article
- To wait or not to wait: Optimal time interval between the first and second blood-culture sets to maximize blood-culture yield.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2022Article
- Impact of satellite blood culture on early diagnosis of sepsis.Journal of intensive medicine · 2022Article
- Epidemiology and Risk Factors of Healthcare-Associated Infections in Critically Ill Patients in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Nepal: A Prospective Cohort Study.Infectious diseases · 2022Article
- The CINAMR (Clinical Information Network-Antimicrobial Resistance) Project: A pilot microbial surveillance using hospitals linked to regional laboratories in Kenya: Study Protocol.Wellcome open research · 2022Article
- Impact of delays to incubation and storage temperature on blood culture results: a multi-centre study.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrompt identification of bloodstream pathogens is essential for optimal management of patients. Significant changes in analytical methods have improved the turnaround time for laboratory diagnosis. Less attention has been paid to the time elapsing from blood collection to incubation and to its potential effect on recovery of pathogens. We evaluated the performance of blood cultures collected under typical hospital conditions in relation to the length of their pre-analytical time.
methodsWe carried out a large retrospective study including 50,955 blood cultures collected, over a 30-month period, from 7,035 adult septic patients. Cultures were accepted by the laboratory only during opening time (Mon-Fri: 8am-4pm; Sat: 8am-2pm). Samples collected outside laboratory hours were stored at room temperature at clinical wards. All cultures were processed by automated culture systems. Day and time of blood collection and of culture incubation were known for all samples.
resultsA maximum pre-analytical interval of 2 hours is recommended by guidelines. When the laboratory was open, 57% of cultures were processed within 2 h. When the laboratory was closed, 4.9% of cultures were processed within 2 h (P<0.001). Samples collected when the laboratory was closed showed pre-analytical times significantly longer than those collected when laboratory was open (median time: 13 h and 1 h, respectively, P<0.001). The prevalence of positive cultures was significantly lower for samples collected when the laboratory was closed compared to open (11% vs 13%, P<0.001). The probability of a positive result decreased of 16% when the laboratory was closed (OR:0.84; 95%CI:0.80-0.89, P<0.001). Further, each hour elapsed from blood collection to incubation resulted associated with a decrease of 0.3% (OR:0.997; 95%CI:0.994-0.999, P<0.001) in the probability of a positive result. DISCUSSION: Delayed insertions of cultures into automated systems was associated with lower detection rates, with potentially important consequences for patients. In each hospital setting the logistic factors able to shorten pre-analytical time should be carefully investigated and specifically targeted.
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