Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration
Authors: Shinya Yamamoto, Koh Okamoto
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2020)

Letters17 March 2020Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial AdministrationShinya Yamamoto, MD and Koh Okamoto, MD, MSShinya Yamamoto, MDThe University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan (S.Y., K.O.)Search for more papers by this author and Koh Okamoto, MD, MSThe University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan (S.Y., K.O.)Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/L19-0793 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:Cheng and colleagues' (1) findings reemphasize the importance of obtaining blood cultures before administering antibiotics. Although we appreciate how their study will affect antimicrobial stewardship in the era of antimicrobial resistance, we would like more information on the importance of the quantity of blood cultured.Given the nature of Cheng and colleagues' pragmatic study design, the quantity of blood cultured and the number of blood culture sets differed among study sites. The sensitivity of a blood culture is determined on the basis of the total blood volume and number of cultures collected (2). Although the authors indicate ...References1. Cheng MP, Stenstrom R, Paquette K, et al; FABLED Investigators. Blood culture results before and after antimicrobial administration in patients with severe manifestations of sepsis. A diagnostic study. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171:547-54. [PMID: 31525774]. doi:10.7326/M19-1696 LinkGoogle Scholar2. Miller JM, Binnicker MJ, Campbell S, et al. A guide to utilization of the microbiology laboratory for diagnosis of infectious diseases: 2018 update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Society for Microbiology. Clin Infect Dis. 2018;67:e1-94. [PMID: 29955859] doi:10.1093/cid/ciy381 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. Baron EJ, Weinstein MP, Dunne WM, et al. Cumitech 1C: Blood Cultures IV. Washington, DC: ASM Pr; 2005. Google Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan (S.Y., K.O.)Disclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=L19-0793. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoBlood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration in Patients With Severe Manifestations of Sepsis Matthew P. Cheng , Robert Stenstrom , Katryn Paquette , Sarah N. Stabler , Murtaza Akhter , Adam C. Davidson , Marko Gavric , Alexander Lawandi , Rehman Jinah , Zahid Saeed , Koray Demir , Kelly Huang , Amirali Mahpour , Chris Shamatutu , Chelsea Caya , Jean-Marc Troquet , Greg Clark , Cedric P. Yansouni , David Sweet , and Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration Michiel Schinkel , Rishi Nannan Panday , and Prabath Nanayakkara Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration Larry M. Bush and Donald Kaye Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration Matthew P. Cheng , Robert Stenstrom , Katryn Paquette , Cedric Yansouni , and David Sweet Metrics 17 March 2020Volume 172, Issue 6Page: 440KeywordsAntibioticsAntimicrobial resistanceAntimicrobialsBloodBlood volumeConflicts of interestDisclosure ePublished: 17 March 2020 Issue Published: 17 March 2020 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2020 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...