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

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Adelaide Fernandes Costa, Sueli Lemes de Ávila Alves, Ivanísio Gomes de Santana, Disley Xavier Rodrigues Dias, Edna Joana Claudio Manrique
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2019
• Subjects: Blood culture; Immunosuppression; Mycobacteria; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0267-2018; https://doaj.org/article/c1153a2d21084dd2944f42d08e5541b3

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.