BACKGROUND: Many non-invasive, continuous-monitoring blood culture systems have introduced technology that reduces the time and labor. There is a report that terminal subculture is necessary to decrease false negative. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the terminal subcultures for blood cultures monitored by VITAL system and to determine the clinical significance of positive blood cultures not detected by VITAL system. METHODS: From June to August 1996, a total of 3,988 blood culture bottles were processed by VITAL system and terminal subcultures were performed on consecutive 5 day blood culture. Any culture that was instrument positive but negative upon terminal subculture was considered to be false positive. Any culture that was instrument negative but positive upon terminal subculture was considered to be false negative. And false negative were categorized into minor and major errors. RESULTS: Two-hundred and nineteen (5.5%) out of 3,988 blood culture bottles were signaled as positive by VITAL system. Twenty-four bottles out of 219 were VITAL positive but negative upon terminal subcultures (false positive rate, 0.8%). And seven of the 3,988 terminal subcultures were false negative (0.2%). Four out of seven were major error and three were minor error. The isolates of major error bottles were Staphylococcus spp. and minor error bottles were Escherichia coli and Candida tropicalis. These isolates were clinically significant pathogens, but there were no changes on antimicrobial chemotherapy after reporting the positive blood culture reports. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that using VITAL system, terminal subculture of 5 day instrument-negative blood culture bottles is not necessary and the VITAL system provides for the rapid and convenient tool for detecting bacteremia.
Bacteremia ; Candida tropicalis ; Drug Therapy ; Escherichia coli ; Staphylococcus

Vibrio fluvialis is a haplophilic gram-negative bacterium normally found in coastal water and seafood and causes gastroenteritis. There have been a few reports on V. fluvialis gastroenteritis in Korea, but no previous report of isolation from blood. We isolated V. fluvialis from the blood of two patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy.
Bacteremia* ; Drug Therapy* ; Gastroenteritis ; Humans ; Korea ; Seafood ; Vibrio*

Bacteremia ; diagnosis ; drug therapy ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Mannheimia haemolytica ; Pasteurellaceae Infections ; diagnosis ; drug therapy

BACKGROUND: Clinical significance of viridans streptococcal bacteremia may be variable from insignificant colonization to serious invasive diseases such as endocarditis. However, there have been no data on the clinical implications of viridans streptococcal bacteremia in Korea to date. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have analyzed 95 cases of viridans streptococcal bacteremia diagnosed at the Samsung Medical Center from 1997 to 2003. All available clinical and microbiological data were analyzed. RESULTS: Of the total 95 cases, 76 (80%) had clinically significant infections, while 20% of cases were not associated with clinical diseases. Primary bacteremia was the most common disease (48%) followed by intra-abdominal infections (15%), and infective endocarditis (8%). Primary bacteremia was mostly observed in patients with neutropenia after anti-cancer chemotherapy. Infective endocarditis was unlikely if patients did not have underlying heart diseases. S. mitis, S. oralis, and S. intermedius were the most common etiologic agent in infective endocarditis, primary bacteremia, and intra-abdominal infection, respectively. Thirty-eight percent of isolates were not susceptible to penicillin. CONCLUSION: Viridans streptococcal bacteremia is likely to be associated with invasive clinical diseases, especially in patients with neutropenia, intra-abdominal diseases or underlying heart diseases. However, the presence of viridans streptococci in the blood cultures does not necessarily mean the possibility of infective endocarditis.
Bacteremia* ; Colon ; Drug Therapy ; Endocarditis ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Intraabdominal Infections ; Korea ; Neutropenia ; Penicillins ; Viridans Streptococci*

BACKGROUND: Clinical significance of viridans streptococcal bacteremia may be variable from insignificant colonization to serious invasive diseases such as endocarditis. However, there have been no data on the clinical implications of viridans streptococcal bacteremia in Korea to date. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We have analyzed 95 cases of viridans streptococcal bacteremia diagnosed at the Samsung Medical Center from 1997 to 2003. All available clinical and microbiological data were analyzed. RESULTS: Of the total 95 cases, 76 (80%) had clinically significant infections, while 20% of cases were not associated with clinical diseases. Primary bacteremia was the most common disease (48%) followed by intra-abdominal infections (15%), and infective endocarditis (8%). Primary bacteremia was mostly observed in patients with neutropenia after anti-cancer chemotherapy. Infective endocarditis was unlikely if patients did not have underlying heart diseases. S. mitis, S. oralis, and S. intermedius were the most common etiologic agent in infective endocarditis, primary bacteremia, and intra-abdominal infection, respectively. Thirty-eight percent of isolates were not susceptible to penicillin. CONCLUSION: Viridans streptococcal bacteremia is likely to be associated with invasive clinical diseases, especially in patients with neutropenia, intra-abdominal diseases or underlying heart diseases. However, the presence of viridans streptococci in the blood cultures does not necessarily mean the possibility of infective endocarditis.
Bacteremia* ; Colon ; Drug Therapy ; Endocarditis ; Heart Diseases ; Humans ; Intraabdominal Infections ; Korea ; Neutropenia ; Penicillins ; Viridans Streptococci*

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the characteristics, prognosis and risk factors of bloodstream infection in patients with hematological malignancies in the tropics, so as to provide evidence for the prevention and treatment of bloodstream infection. METHODS: The clinical features, blood culture results and prognosis of patients with bloodstream infection in patients with hematological malignancies admitted to Hainan Hospital of PLA General Hospital were retrospectively studied. RESULTS: The most common primary infection site of the 81 patients with hematological malignancies was lung (46.91%), followed by PICC (11.11%). The detection rate of Gram-positive bacteria and Gram-negative bacteria in the blood culture was 60.98% and 30.02%, respectively. Coagulase-negative staphylococci was the most common Gram-positive bacteria resulting in bloodstream infection in our study. Of the Gram-negatives, Klebsiella pneumoniae (34.38%) was predominant, followed by Escherichia coli (18.75%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18.75%). Gram-positive bacteria was highly sensitive (100%) to vancomycin, linezolid and tigecycline. Study showed that Gram-negative bacteria had low sensitive to quinolones, in particular, the resistance rate of Escherichia coli to quinolones was as high as 83.33%. In terms of overall survival (OS), the 30-days OS of patients with Gram-negative and Gram-positive septicemia was 77.42% and 92.00%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that septic shock (P=0.001, RR=269.27) was an independent risk factor for 30-day mortality, and remission status (P=0.027, RR=0.114) was an independent predictor of a favourable outcome of bloodstream infection in patients with hematological malignancies. CONCLUSION Gram-positive bacteria are the main pathogens causing bloodstream infections in patients with hematological malignancies in the tropics. Improving the care of PICC is an important measure to reduce the incidence of bloodstream infection in patients with hematological malignancies in the tropics. A correct treatment relieving disease and effective prevention and treatment of septic shock can reduce mortality of patients with bloodstream infection in patients with hematological malignancies in the tropics.
Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use* ; Bacteremia/drug therapy* ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; Hematologic Neoplasms/drug therapy* ; Humans ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Sepsis

Leclercia adecarboxylata and Escherichia hermannii are motile, gram-negative facultative anaerobic bacilli which have rarely been isolated from environmental and clinical specimens. Although several cases of L. adecarboxylata or E. hermannii infections have been reported, a confirmed case of Hickman catheter-associated bacteremia has, to our knowledge, never been reported. A 69-year old woman completed her fourth schedule of chemotherapy for the treatment of leiomyosarcoma and was discharged without complication. However, she suffered from fever and chills for three weeks soon after the completion of chemotherapy and visited the emergency department. A Hickman catheter was promptly removed and the catheter tip was submitted to semiquantitative culture, as well as three sets of blood cultures from three different peripheral veins. Mixed growth of L. adecarboxylata and E. hermannii was isolated from Hickman catheter tip culture and all three sets of blood cultures.
Aged ; Appointments and Schedules ; Bacteremia* ; Catheters ; Chills ; Drug Therapy ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Enterobacteriaceae* ; Escherichia* ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Leiomyosarcoma ; Veins

PURPOSE: We evaluated the easily-assessable risk factors to predict bacteremia in children with febrile neutropenia, who received anticancer chemotherapy. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 46 children who had febrile neutropenia caused by anticancer chemotherapy between March, 1993 and February, 1997. The patients with localized infection on presentation were not eligible for this study. We evaluated the correlation between bacteremia and some variables, including absolute neutrophil count (ANC), absolute monocyte count (AMoC) and absolute phagocyte count (APC). RESULTS: There was total of 147 consecutive episodes of fever in 46 children, with 90 episodes of fever were noted in neutropenic patients without localized infection. There were 20 episodes of bacteremia (22.2%) in 90 episodes of febrile neutropenia. The mean ANC of 365.5 +/- 448.3/microliter, mean AMoC 132.3 +/- 310.4/microliter and mean APC 502.0 +/- 603.3/microliter did not show significant correlation with bacteremia. There was no statistically significant correlation between bacteremia and ANC or AMoC. There was higher risk of bacteremia in patients with AMoC less than 100/microliter as compared with patients with AMoC above than 100/microliter (odds ratio : 1.39, 95%CI : 0.41-4.69). There were 17 episodes of bacteremia (28.8% of 59 febrile episodes) in patients with APC less than 500/microliter and 3 episodes of bacteremia (9.7% of 31 febrile episodes) in patients with APC above than 500/microliter (P=0.03, odds ratio : 3.78, 95%CI : 1.01-14.10). CONCLUSION: There was a statistically-significant correlation between bacteremia and APC with higher risk of bacteremia in patients with APC less than 500/microliter. Trials should be conducted to test whether APC may be used to assign some children to less intensive or outpatient antibiotic therapy at the time of presentation of febrile neutropenia.
Bacteremia* ; Child* ; Drug Therapy* ; Febrile Neutropenia* ; Fever ; Humans ; Monocytes ; Neutropenia ; Neutrophils ; Odds Ratio ; Outpatients ; Phagocytes ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors*

No abstract available.
Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Bacteremia/*drug therapy ; Cephalosporins/therapeutic use ; Ciprofloxacin/therapeutic use ; Community-Acquired Infections/*drug therapy ; Cross Infection/*drug therapy ; Drug Resistance, Bacterial ; Humans ; Klebsiella Infections/*drug therapy ; *Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Treatment Outcome

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of polymyxin B in neutropenic patients with hematologic disorders who had refractory gram-negative bacterial bloodstream infection. Methods: From August 2021 to July 2022, we retrospectively analyzed neutropenic patients with refractory gram-negative bacterial bloodstream infection who were treated with polymyxin B in the Department of Hematology of the First Affiliated Hospital of the Soochow University between August 2021 to July 2022. The cumulative response rate was then computed. Results: The study included 27 neutropenic patients with refractory gram-negative bacterial bloodstream infections. Polymyxin B therapy was effective in 22 of 27 patients. The median time between the onset of fever and the delivery of polymyxin B was 3 days [interquartile range (IQR) : 2-5]. The median duration of polymyxin B treatment was 7 days (IQR: 5-11). Polymyxin B therapy had a median antipyretic time of 37 h (IQR: 32-70). The incidence of acute renal dysfunction was 14.8% (four out of 27 cases), all classified as "injury" according to RIFLE criteria. The incidence of hyperpigmentation was 59.3%. Conclusion: Polymyxin B is a viable treatment option for granulocytopenia patients with refractory gram-negative bacterial bloodstream infections.
Humans ; Polymyxin B/adverse effects* ; Retrospective Studies ; Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections/complications* ; Fever/drug therapy* ; Sepsis/drug therapy* ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use* ; Bacteremia/complications*