First Blood Culture Specimen In Endocarditis

Abstract

Summary: Blood cultures were taken from suspected infective endocarditis. A total of26 patients were taken, 18 were proved bacteriologically as having infective endocarditis. Three blood cultures were performed on these patients. It was seen that 66.66% ofthese patients could be diagnosed from the very first blood culture specimen

Introduction : In cases of endocarditis in which the infection is fulminating it may not be possible to delay the treatment till the mandatory theree blood cultures be taken rather if results could be obtained from the first specimen alone, it will greatly speed up the recovery.

Material and Method: Three 1 0 ml. blood samples before antibiotic therapy were collected from each patient at an interval ofat least 2 hours over a period of24 - 48 hours. Blood was inoculated into blood culture bottles containing base broth at patients bedside and incubated at 37c. The cultiAres were kept for three week before discarding.

Results : Table 1 shows the number of cases in which the diagnosis was made in the first blood culture specimen. Streptococcus viredans was the causative organism in 6 1 .53% of the first cultures.

Discussion: Opinions differ as the number of blood cultures which should be taken from suspected cases. Three blood samples with at least a two hours interval between each sample should be collected.