Clinical Significance of Isolates Known to Be Blood Culture Contaminants in Pediatric Patients

摘要

The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of isolates from blood stream infection known to be blood culture contaminants in pediatric patients. Microbiological reports and medical records of all blood culture tests issued from 2002 to 2012 ( = 76,331) were retrospectively reviewed. Evaluation for potential contaminants were done by reviewing medical records of patients with the following isolates: coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, viridans group Streptococcus, , and species. Repeated cultures with same isolates were considered as a single case. Cases were evaluated for their status as a pathogen. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus had clinical significance in 23.8% of all cases. Its rate of being a true pathogen was particularly high in patients with malignancy (43.7%). Viridans group Streptococcus showed clinical significance in 46.2% of all cases. Its rate of being a true pathogen was similar regardless of the underlying morbidity of the patient. The rate of being a true pathogens for remaining isolates was 27.7% for and 19.0% for species. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus and viridans group Streptococcus isolates showed high probability of being true pathogens in the pediatric population, especially in patients with underlying malignancy.