TITLE:
Bacterial Blood Isolates in Children: Conventional vs. Bactec Automated Blood Culture System in a Tertiary Health Centre in Gombe, North East Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Elon Warnow Isaac, Iliya Jalo, Abubakar Joshua Difa, Mercy Raymond Poksireni, Oyeniyi Christianah, Muhammad Saminu Charanci, Ibrahim Mohammed, Mohammed Mohammed Manga
KEYWORDS:
Children, Blood Culture, Isolates, Manual, Automated
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Medical Microbiology,
Vol.12 No.3,
September
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: Background/Aim: Blood culture is critical in
the diagnosis and treatment of blood stream infections (BSIs) especially in
children. BSIs are among the most common cause of morbidity/mortality and blood
culture has remained the gold standard for diagnosis. We sought to compare
Blood Culture Isolates (BCI) from conventional and Bactec automated blood
culture system (ABCS) among paediatric patients at the Federal Teaching
Hospital Gombe (FTHG) Nigeria. Methods: BCI in children (0 - 18 years) by conventional method from 2008-2012 and Bactec Automated culture
system from 2015-2020 were retrieved from
the clinical microbiology laboratory register. Information analyzed
included, age, sex, month, and year and blood culture isolates. Results: There
were 5276 (56.9% males, 43.1% females) and 1169 (54% males, 46% females)
Blood Culture Isolates by CM and ABCS respectively. Overall positive culture isolates were 9.7% (515/5276) in CM and
45.9% (536/1169) in ABCS (p = 0.01). Positivity rate in newborn was 13.3% (282/2114) by CM and 40.9%
(219/263) by ABCS p = 0.01; under-5 was 10.5% (448/4253) vs. 37% (359/873) (p =
0.01); Gram positive 32.6% (172) vs. 65% (759) (p = 0.01; Gram negative 55% (2910) vs. 34% (397) (p = 0.01). Staph aureus 22% (114/515) by
CM vs. 61.9% (332/536)) by ABCS (p = 0.01); Klebsiella 24.9% (128/515) by CM vs. 7.5% (40/536) p = 0.01) in ABCS, E. coli 8.9% (46/515) vs. 2.1% (11/536)
p = 0.01; Proteus vs. 1.1% (6/515) by
ABCS, Pseudomonas 3.3% (17/515) vs. 5.6% (30/536) p = 0.05, Alkaligenes 1% (5/515) vs. 8.2% (44/536) p = 0.01 and Citrobacter 1% (5/515) vs. 8.4% (45/536) p = 0.01. Conclusion: Blood culture yield
was five times higher with Bactec compared with Conventional method.