Recovery of pathogens with implementation of a weight-based algorithm for pediatric blood cultures: an observational intervention study

TL;DR

Using a weight-based algorithm to increase blood volume for pediatric blood cultures improves pathogen detection while reducing contamination rates.

Contribution

Implementation of a weight-based algorithm for pediatric blood cultures increases pathogen recovery rates.

Findings

True positive blood culture rate increased from 1.6% to 2.9% after the intervention.

Contaminated cultures decreased from 45% to 26% of all positive cultures post-intervention.

Microorganisms growing in multiple bottles were rarely classified as contaminants (2%).

Abstract

Recovering pathogenic bacteria and yeast from pediatric blood cultures and reliably distinguishing between pathogens and contaminants are likely to be improved by increasing the volume of blood submitted to microbiology laboratories for culturing beyond the low volumes that have historically have been used. The primary aim of this study was to assess whether the pathogen recovery rate would increase after implementation of a weight-based algorithm for determining the intended volume of blood submitted for culturing.

Secondary aims were to: 1) evaluate the effects of the algorithm implementation on the blood culture contamination rate; 2) determine whether pathogens might be found more often than contaminants in several as opposed to single bottles when more than one bottle is submitted; and 3) describe the microbiological findings for pathogens and contaminants in blood cultures by applying a clinical validation of true blood culture positivity.

A pre-post comparison of positivity and contamination rates after increasing the theoretical blood volume and number of blood culture bottles was performed, on the basis of a clinical validation of blood culture findings as pathogens vs contaminants.

We examined 5327 blood cultures, including 186 with growth (123 true positives and 63 contaminated). The rate of true positive blood cultures significantly increased from 1.6% (42/2553) pre to 2.9% (81/2774, p = .002) post intervention. The rate of contaminated blood cultures did not change significantly during the study period (1.4% [35/2553] pre vs 1.0% [28/2774], p = .222) post intervention), but the proportion of contaminated cultures among all positive cultures decreased from 45% (35/77) pre to 26% (28/109, p = .005) post intervention. A microorganism that grew in a single bottle was considered a contaminant in 35% (8/23) of cases, whereas a microorganism that grew in at least two bottles was considered a contaminant in 2% (1/49, p < .001) of cases. According to common classification criteria relying primarily on the identity of the microorganism, 14% (17/123) of the recovered pathogens would otherwise have been classified as contaminants.

Implementation of a weight-based algorithm to determine the volume and number of blood cultures in pediatric patients is associated with an increase in the pathogen recovery rate.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12887-024-04930-9.

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