Diagnostic yield of blood cultures in febrile neutropenia—a real-world observational study from an academic medical center during blood culture bottle shortage

TL;DR

This study examined how effective blood cultures are for diagnosing infections in patients with febrile neutropenia during a shortage of blood culture bottles.

Contribution

The study provides real-world evidence on blood culture yield during shortages and suggests limiting repeat cultures within 48 hours.

Findings

The detection rate of true bacteremia increased with more blood culture sets, though not significantly.

Findings suggest avoiding repeat blood cultures within 48 hours to optimize resource use during shortages.

Abstract

This single-center retrospective analysis evaluated the yield of blood cultures in patients with febrile neutropenia during a supply shortage. The detection rate of true bacteremia was observed to increase with the number of sets obtained, although this increase was not statistically significant. Findings support limiting repeat cultures within 48 hours.

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