Evaluation of Radiometric System for Detecting Bacteremia

An automated radiometric system (BACTEC, Johnston Laboratories) for detection of bacteremia was evaluated in parallel with a standard blood culture system in use in our laboratory. Of 1,445 blood cultures from 484 patients with possible bacteremia, 106 sets of cultures (excluding 39 presumed contaminated), representing 56 patients, were positive by both methods. The conventional system yielded 85 positive cultures from 48 patients, whereas the BACTEC system yielded 84 positive cultures from 43 patients. The BACTEC system failed to detect 22 cultures that were positive in the conventional system, and the conventional system failed to detect 21 cultures that were positive in the BACTEC system. The detection efficiency was generally equivalent in the two systems except for the lower detection rates of anaerobes and Enterobacter aerogenes by the BACTEC system and the lower detection rates of Torulopsis glabrata and, possibly, Pseudomonas sp. (group IVD) in the conventional system. The BACTEC system had a slight advantage over the conventional system in the time interval to detection of positivity. Approximately 20% of the positive cultures detected by the BACTEC system were detected on the first day of incubation compared with 7% by the conventional system. The recovery rates and detection times of anaerobes were less efficient by the BACTEC system than by the conventional system. It does not appear that the radiometric method has much advantage over available conventional methods.