Obtaining blood cultures, Biology

Assignment Help:

• Blood cultures are critical in the diagnosis and management of IE.
• Obtain blood cultures before starting antimicrobial therapy whenever possible.
• Intravascular infection leads to constant bacteremia originating from vegetations. Therefore, it is unnecessary to await the arrival of a fever spike or chills to obtain blood cultures.
• There is no significant diagnostic benefit gained from using arterial versus venous blood for culture.
• Always use strict aseptic technique and optimal skin preparation when collecting blood for culture. The recommended antiseptic skin preparation is liberal swabbing with 70 per cent isopropyl alcohol applied in widening circles over a reasonably wide area of skin around the intended site for venepuncture and allowed to dry followed by similar application of an iodophore or tincture of iodine over the same area.
• Blood cultures should be obtained by way of fresh venepunctures and not through indwelling intravascular devices.
• For suspected cases of acute IE obtain atleast two, preferably three sets of blood cultures within 5 to 10 minutes of each other before starting empiric antibiotic therapy.
• For suspected cases of subacute IE draw three separate blood cultures, spaced 30 minutes to 1 hour apart. If these remain negative at 24 hours, draw two further separate cultures.
• The volume of each blood sample drawn should be 20 ml for adults, 1 to 2 ml for neonates, 2 to 3 ml for infants aged 1 month to 2 years, 3 to 5 ml for older children, and 10 to 20 ml for adolescents.
• Each separate blood culture should be divided for inoculation into two bottles. One anaerobic bottle should be included in the total of four bottles inoculated from the two samples to enhance the recovery of certain facultative anaerobes such as streptococci, especially nutritionally variant streptococci.
• If all blood cultures remain negative at 5 days but IE remains likely on clinical grounds, subculture bottles on to chocolate agar plates if the bottles are not held beyond 5 days.
• For optimal processing, the laboratory should be advised that endocarditis is a possible diagnosis and which, if any unusual bacteria are suspected (Legionella species, Bartonella species, HACEK organisms).


Related Discussions:- Obtaining blood cultures

Transferring the patient form icu to ward, Transferring the Patient form IC...

Transferring the Patient form ICU to Ward The patient is made to ambulate in ICU before shifting to ward . vitals are stabilized. The ward nurse is explained the pa

Acetylcholine - long term potentiation, Acetylcholine, a well known neurotr...

Acetylcholine, a well known neurotransmitter, plays a critical synaptic role in the initial formation of memory. Chemical blockage of the acetylcholine receptors makes it harder to

Define mobilization of bone calcium and phosphorous, Define Mobilization of...

Define Mobilization of bone calcium and phosphorous? It is now firmly established that vitamin D 3 is metabloized first in the liver to 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25 OH- D) (calcicl

Metabolism of fructose, Fructose is an abundant sugar in the human diet; su...

Fructose is an abundant sugar in the human diet; sucrose (table sugar) is a disaccharide that when hydrolyzed yields glucose and fructose and fructose is also a major sugar in hone

What are organic compounds in the cytoplasm, High salt concentrations can b...

High salt concentrations can be toxic to plants as they have the potential to disrupt essential cell functions. Yet many halophytes sequester high amount of salt in their vacuoles,

Explain the nutritional factors that affecting food choice, Explain the Nut...

Explain the Nutritional Factors that affecting food choice? Food choices made based on sound principles of nutrition will be conducive to good health while carelessness about n

List the requirements of implant materials, List the requirements of implan...

List the requirements of implant materials. a) Biologically compatibility: an ideal implant material will elicit mainly physiological reactions within the surrounding tissues (

What do you mean by an antibiogram, Q. What is an antibiogram? The Anti...

Q. What is an antibiogram? The Antibiogram is a laboratory test intended to guide the choice of sufficient antibiotic to treat a given bacterial infection. In an Antibiogram cu

Viscosity of gastrointestinal contents delay absorption, Explain Viscosity ...

Explain Viscosity of Gastrointestinal Contents Delay Absorption? 1. Inadequate mixing of luminal contents due to increased viscosity may slow the movement of digestive enzymes

Essential and non – essential amino acids, Essential and Non – Essential Am...

Essential and Non – Essential Amino Acids The requirement of essential amino acids differs from organism to organism. Some bacteria require only one amino acid in sufficient q

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd