Comparison of BACTEC™ blood culture media for the detection of fungemia

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether addition of the BACTEC™ Mycosis bottle to the standard BACTEC™ aerobic and anaerobic bottles contributed to a higher detection rate and a faster time to detection (TTD) of fungi. This was a retrospective cohort study of all patients with a positive blood culture with Candida species delivered to the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Denmark in the 8-year period 2006 through 2014. The patients had at least one BACTEC™ aerobic and one Mycosis bottle sampled at the same time and at least one of the bottles yielded growth of fungi. Among 184 patients included, 173 were examined using BACTEC™ aerobic, anaerobic and Mycosis bottles. The anaerobic vial generally had the lowest detection rate and the longest TTD. The detection rate of BACTEC™ aerobic plus anaerobic with the BACTEC™ Mycosis bottle was significantly higher than the detection rate of BACTEC™ aerobic plus anaerobic without BACTEC™ Mycosis bottle for all species after 1–5 days, and specially for Candida glabrata at 2, 3, 4 and 5 days. TTD for C. glabrata was significantly shorter for BACTEC™ Mycosis than TTD for BACTEC™ aerobic or anaerobic bottles after ½ to 4 days. When combining “first or only” detection, the BACTEC™ Mycosis bottle had a significantly higher detection as compared to the aerobic bottle. Addition of the BACTEC™ Mycosis bottle to the standard BACTEC™ aerobic and anaerobic bottles significantly contributed to a higher detection rate and a faster TTD of fungemia.