ArticleJournal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie medicale et l'infectiologie Canada2024
Finding significant pathogens in blood cultures in children: Should we set the timer to 36 hours?
Article in Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie medicale et l'infectiologie Canada, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of switching from manual to automated aerobic blood culture on bacteremia diagnosis in Lao PDR.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Investigating the role of KARS in lung adenocarcinoma via single-cell RNA sequencing.Discover oncology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Knowledge of time to positivity (TTP) for blood cultures is useful to assess timing of discontinuation of empiric antimicrobials for suspected bacteremia with no focus. Methods: An audit of positive blood cultures from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) from November 1, 2019, to October 31, 2020, was performed to determine TTP, defined as the start of incubation to a positive signal from automated incubators. Results: Three hundred seventy-six positive blood cultures were identified from 248 patients (average age: 6.27 [SD 6.24] years). Of these, 247 isolates were speciated; 90 (36.4%) were definitive/probable (DP) pathogens (median TTP 12.75 hours) and 157 (63.6%) possible/probable (PP) contaminants (median TTP 24.08 hours). At each time point, the adjusted rate of positive blood culture was significantly higher for DP pathogens compared to PP contaminants (hazard ratio [HR] 1.80 [95% CI 1.37, 2.36]) and for children ≤27 days old compared to the oldest age group (HR 1.94 [95% CI 1.19, 3.17]). By 36 hours, the proportion of positive cultures was significantly higher in the youngest age group (≤27 days) compared with the 3-11 years old age group (91.7% [95% CI 68.6%, 97.8%] versus 58.2% [95% CI 46.91%, 68.06%]). Conclusion: Across all ages, the TTP was significantly shorter for blood cultures with DP pathogens compared to those with PP contaminants (HR 1.80 [95% CI 1.37, 2.36]). In newborns, 90% of blood cultures were positive by 36 hours supporting this re-assessment time for empiric antimicrobials. TTP was longer in children ≥12 months, possibly related to other factors such as blood culture volume.
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