Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration
Authors: Larry M. Bush, Donald Kaye
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2020)

Letters17 March 2020Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial AdministrationLarry M. Bush, MD and Donald Kaye, MDLarry M. Bush, MDCharles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Palm Beach County, Florida (L.M.B.)Search for more papers by this author and Donald Kaye, MDDrexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (D.K.)Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/L19-0795 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:Cheng and colleagues' (1) finding that administration of antibiotics before blood culture collection reduces the number of positive culture results in patients with sepsis is not surprising and seems intuitive. The relevant question is what effect this finding has on outcomes when treating sepsis as it is defined by the consensus panel of the 2016 Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock, whose conclusions are predicated on infection as the trigger (2). Culture-positive sepsis from any source historically has been observed in only 30% to 40% of cases, and only approximately 6% to 10% of ...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. Singer M, Deutschman CS, Seymour CW, et al. The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3). JAMA. 2016;315:801-10. [PMID: 26903338] doi:10.1001/jama.2016.0287 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. Levy MM, Evans LE, Rhodes A. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign bundle: 2018 update. Crit Care Med. 2018;46:997-1000. [PMID: 29767636] doi:10.1097/CCM.0000000000003119 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Peltan ID, Brown SM, Bledsoe JR, et al. ED door-to-antibiotic time and long-term mortality in sepsis. Chest. 2019;155:938-46. [PMID: 30779916] doi:10.1016/j.chest.2019.02.008 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Palm Beach County, Florida (L.M.B.)Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (D.K.)Disclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=L19-0795. 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 Matthew P. Cheng , Robert Stenstrom , Katryn Paquette , Cedric Yansouni , and David Sweet Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration Shinya Yamamoto and Koh Okamoto Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration Michiel Schinkel , Rishi Nannan Panday , and Prabath Nanayakkara Metrics 17 March 2020Volume 172, Issue 6Page: 439-440KeywordsAntibioticsAntimicrobialsBloodEmergency departmentInfectious diseasesMortalityMultidrug resistancePathogensSepsisShock ePublished: 17 March 2020 Issue Published: 17 March 2020 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2020 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...