Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41502864›Full record

ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Europe2026

Blood culture practices and microbiological capacity for sepsis diagnostics in Europe (2021-2022): a cross-sectional analysis of the European Sepsis Care Survey.

Christian S Scheer, Evangelos J Giamarellos-Bourboulis, Djillali Annane, Antonio Artigas, Abdullah Tarik Aslan, Gabriella Bottari, Hjalmar R Bouma, Vladimir Černý, Renata Curić Radivojević, Ken Dewitte and 23 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in The Lancet regional health. Europe, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

33 authors.

Christian S ScheerDepartment of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Pain Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Evangelos J Giamarellos-Bourboulis4th Department of Internal Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, Athens, Greece.
Djillali AnnaneService de Réanimation, Hôpital Raymond Poincaré, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, Garches, Versailles, France.
Antonio ArtigasCritical Care Center, Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari, CIBERes, Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT-CERCA), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Sabadell, Spain.
Abdullah Tarik AslanDepartment of Internal Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye.
Gabriella BottariPaediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Emergency and General Pediatrics, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
Hjalmar R BoumaDepartment of Internal Medicine, Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Vladimir ČernýDept. of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Charles University in Prague, 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic.
Renata Curić RadivojevićDepartment of Anaesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care, Zagreb University Hospital Centre, Zagreb, Croatia.
Ken DewitteEmergency Department, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium.
Daniela FilipescuDepartment of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, "Prof Dr CC Iliescu" Emergency Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Bucharest, Romania.
Matthias GründlingDepartment of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Pain Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Johanna HästbackaDepartment of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Tampere University Hospital, Wellbeing Services County of Pirkanmaa and Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
Said LaribiTours University, School of Medicine and Tours University Hospital, CHU Tours, Emergency Medicine Department, 37044, Tours, France.
Annmarie LassenDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
Konstantin LebedinskiiNorth-West State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov, Federal Research and Clinical Center of Intensive Care Medicine and Rehabilitology, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Adam LinderDivision of Infection Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Jan MácaDepartment of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Ostrava and University of Ostrava, Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic.
Manu L N G MalbrainFirst Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland.
Gianpaola MontiAnestesia e Rianimazione dei Trapianti Dipartimento Chirurgico Polispecialistico ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda Milano, Milan, Italy.
Marlies OstermannDepartment of Critical Care, King's College London, Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
Michael OsthoffDivision of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel and Department of Biomedicine and Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
José Artur PaivaIntensive Care Medicine Service, Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João, Porto, Portugal.
Michela SabbatucciDepartment Infectious Diseases, Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
Jakub ŚmiechowiczClinical Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
Mihai Gabriel ŞtefanDepartment of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, "Prof Dr CC Iliescu" Emergency Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Bucharest, Romania.
Marcus VollmerInstitute of Bioinformatics, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Natalija VukovićClinic for Anesthesiology, Reanimation and Intensive Care, University Clinical Center Niš, Niš, Serbia.
Kyriakos ZaragkouliasSection for Medical Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine Nord-Trøndelag Hospital Trust, Levanger, Norway.
Konrad ReinhartCharité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
Ricard FerrerIntensive Care Department, Vall d'Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain.
Evgeny A IdelevichFriedrich Loeffler-Institute of Medical Microbiology, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
European Sepsis Care Study Group on behalf of the ESCMID Study Group for Bloodstream Infections, Endocarditis and Sepsis (ESGBIES) and the European Sepsis Alliance (ESA)

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Blood cultures (BCs) are key diagnostic elements for sepsis patients. Accurate preanalytical procedures are substantial, and results should be available as soon as possible to guide adequate antimicrobial treatment. This study aimed to evaluate BC collection practices and diagnostic capacity across European hospitals. Methods: This cross-sectional survey investigated BC diagnostics in acute care hospitals across 37 European countries in the years 2021 and 2022. Analyses included BC guidelines, collection sites, number of BC sets in emergency departments (EDs), wards, and intensive care units (ICUs). We also examined transfer after collection, the use of on-site vs. external laboratories, opening hours, rapid testing capacity, and turn-around times of BCs processed in microbiology laboratories with different infrastructures. Findings: Responses were collected from 907 hospitals in Europe. BC guidelines were available in 84·4% (741/878) of the hospitals. BCs were preferably collected by multiple-site sampling in EDs (62·7%, 461/735), in wards (64·0%, 513/802) and ICUs (68·5%, 518/756). One BC set was preferred in EDs in 38·4% (270/704), in wards in 40·5% (314/775), and ICUs in 34·9% (261/748). Two BC sets were preferred in EDs in 31·0% (218/704), in wards in 28·1% (218/775), and ICUs in 39·2% (293/748). 48·0% (402/838) of hospitals used on-site and 52·0% (436/838) external microbiology laboratories. Around-the-clock microbiological services were available in 10⋅0% (91/907), and rapid pathogen identification in 43·7% (396/907) of hospitals. Infrastructure with around-the-clock microbiological service and rapid testing was available in 7·4% (62/840) of hospitals, and probability of a final microbiological result within two days was highest in these hospitals compared to hospitals with limited microbiology service (for BC collected on wards: 19·6% vs. 52·7%, Odds Ratio 4·59 [95% CI 2·50-7·79], p < 0·0001). Interpretation: Despite the availability of BC guidelines in many hospitals, current recommendations for BC collection were often neglected. Rapid testing capacity was limited in most microbiological laboratories, and around-the-clock service for BCs was very rare. As delay in results may have a detrimental impact on patient outcomes, strategies to improve these processes are urgently needed. Funding: The European Sepsis Alliance and a grant by Becton and Dickinson.

Indexed as

Blood culture analysisBlood culturesClinical practiceDiagnosticsInfrastructureMultiple-site samplingNumber of blood cultures setsOpening hoursPre-analytical practiceRapid testingSepsisSingle-site samplingTurn-around time

Identifiers

PMID41502864
PMCPMC12771334

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.