ArticleMicrobiology spectrum2026
Impact of switching from manual to automated aerobic blood culture on bacteremia diagnosis in Lao PDR.
Article in Microbiology spectrum, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Funding for antimicrobial resistance surveillance has led to more laboratories in low-resource settings switching to automated blood culture. There is limited evidence for the impact of switching from manual to automated blood culture in low-resource tropical settings. The objective of this study was to compare the yield of clinically significant blood culture isolates between manual and automated aerobic culture methods in adults and children in a diagnostic laboratory in Lao PDR. This retrospective study analyzed blood culture data from Mahosot Hospital, Vientiane. The switch from manual (two bottles in children and adults) to automated blood culture (one pediatric or one standard aerobic bottle) took place on 8 October 2018. Blood culture results, total blood volume, time to a positive culture of a significant isolate, and method used (manual or automated) were analyzed by multiple logistic regression and survival analysis. We analyzed 34,142 blood culture episodes from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2023, of which 12,709 (37.22%) were processed by manual methods. The median blood volumes cultured per episode in babies, children, and adults were 1.9, 4.5, and 11.2 mL for manual vs 0.9, 1.8, and 10.6 mL for automated culture. The percentage of significant pathogens detected did not differ between manual and automated methods (6.7% vs 6.3%, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.882-1.057]). However, presumed contaminants were detected at different rates between the two methods (4.1% vs 3.9%, 95% CI [0.684-0.864]). The odds ratio (OR) of detecting a significant pathogen increased by about 2.3% per 1 mL increase in blood volume (OR = 1.023, 95% CI [1.013-1.033],
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