Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41716267›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2026

Blood culture positivity and its clinical determinants among hospitalized male patients with newly diagnosed, laboratory-confirmed brucellosis: a hospital-based retrospective study.

Xue Han, Ruiqing Zhang, Bianxia Xu, Weijie Zhang, Fang Wang, Beibei Yuan, Quanlong Ma, Jing Ma, Zhenhua Zhu, Xiaofang Shan and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 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

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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

11 authors.

Xue HanDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Ruiqing ZhangDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Bianxia XuDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Weijie ZhangDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Fang WangDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Beibei YuanDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Quanlong MaDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Jing MaDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Zhenhua ZhuDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Xiaofang ShanDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Ye LiuDepartment of Infectious Disease, The Fourth People's Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background and objective: Brucellosis is a common zoonotic disease worldwide. Because its symptoms are non-specific and laboratory findings vary, diagnosis remains challenging. Blood culture is still the gold standard for confirmation, but its yield is often limited. This study aimed to estimate blood-culture positivity among hospitalized male patients with newly diagnosed brucellosis and to identify clinical and laboratory factors independently associated with culture positivity within confirmed cases. Methods: We conducted a hospital-based retrospective study of 1,188 hospitalized men with newly diagnosed brucellosis admitted to a tertiary infectious-disease hospital in China between 2021 and 2023. Demographics, clinical manifestations, laboratory parameters, and blood-culture results were collected. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors of a positive blood culture. Results: The overall blood-culture positivity rate was 30.9%. Univariate analysis indicated that disease stage, fatigue, fever, anorexia, splenomegaly, arthritis, paraspinal abscess, joint effusion, platelet count (PLT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), albumin (ALB), total bilirubin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), serum agglutination test (SAT), procalcitonin (PCT), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were associated with culture positivity. After multivariate adjustment, LDH, SAT, PCT, and ESR emerged as independent predictors of a positive blood culture, with PCT showing the strongest predictive value. Higher levels of LDH, SAT, PCT and ESR were independently associated with higher positive rates of blood cultures. Conclusion: In this hospital-based retrospective cohort of confirmed brucellosis, LDH, SAT titer, PCT, and ESR were independently associated with blood-culture positivity. These routinely available parameters may help risk-stratify bacteremic likelihood and support culture-related decision-making (e.g., prioritizing sampling and considering repeat cultures when clinically warranted) among SAT-positive (or otherwise confirmed) patients, but they should not be interpreted as standalone markers for diagnosing

Indexed as

blood culturebrucellosisclinical diagnosispredictive factorsretrospective study

Identifiers

PMID41716267
PMCPMC12913500

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