Increase in the diagnosis of mycobacteremia after the implementation of semi-automated blood culture at a Brazilian public health laboratory

• Main Authors: Adelaide Fernandes Costa, Sueli Lemes de Ávila Alves, Ivanísio Gomes de Santana, Disley Xavier Rodrigues Dias, Edna Joana Claudio Manrique
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2019-04-01
• Series: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Subjects: Blood culture; Immunosuppression; Mycobacteria
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0037-86822019000100637&lng=en&tlng=en
• ISSN: 1678-9849

Abstract INTRODUCTION The prevalence of hematogenous dissemination of mycobacteria is high in immunosuppressed patients. The isolation of mycobacteria in culture remains the standard procedure. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study based on the results of solid (Löwenstein-Jensen medium) and semi-automated liquid (BACTEC 9240) blood cultures, obtained from the Lacen-GO database. RESULTS The implementation of a semi-automated procedure resulted in an increase of 61.5% and 350.0% in the positive results for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and nontuberculous mycobacteria, respectively. This technique also accelerated the detection of positive results. CONCLUSIONS Semi-automated liquid blood culture showed a better performance in the diagnosis of mycobacteremia.