Strategies for increasing diagnostic yield of community-onset bacteraemia within the emergency department: A retrospective study

Deficits in blood culture collection in the emergency department if sepsis is suspected: results of a retrospective cohort study

PURPOSE

Blood cultures (BCs) are key for pathogen detection in septic patients. We investigated the extent to which sampling was performed and what factors were associated with the absence of general or inadequate BC sampling.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of hospitalized patients with sepsis admitted to one of three EDs in 2018. Primary outcome was the extent of general BC collection of at least 1 set. Secondary outcome was the extent of adequate BC sampling, defined as ≥ 2 sets before antibiotic therapy (AT). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with deficits in both outcomes.

RESULTS

1143 patients were analyzed. BCs were collected from 946 patients. Single BCs were taken from 520 patients, ≥ 2 sets from 426 patients. Overall, ≥ 2 BCs were taken from 349 patients before AT. BC sampling before AT occurred significantly more frequently when ≥ 2 BC sets were taken rather than a single one (81.9%, versus 68.4%, p < 0.001) and this also led to the highest pathogen detection rate in our cohort (65.6%). A body temperature of ≥ 38 °C was the a supporting factor for general and adequate BC collection in all three EDs. Retrospective analysis of 533 patients showed that the qSOFA score had no influence on general or adequate BC collection.

CONCLUSION

Data on everyday clinical practice in the pre-analytical phase of microbiological diagnostics shows considerable deficits and indicates the need for more implementation of best practice. The variations identified in BC sampling between EDs should be further investigated.

A clinical decision rule to rule out bloodstream infection in the emergency department: retrospective multicentric observational cohort study

BACKGROUND

We aimed to identify patients at low risk of bloodstream infection (BSI) in the ED.

METHODS

We derived and validated a prediction model to rule out BSI in the ED without the need for laboratory testing by determining variables associated with a positive blood culture (BC) and assigned points according to regression coefficients. This retrospective study included adult patients suspected of having BSI (defined by at least one BC collection) from two European ED between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2019. The primary end point was the BSI rate in the validation cohort for patients with a negative Bacteremia Rule Out Criteria (BAROC) score. The effect of adding laboratory variables to the model was evaluated as a second step in a two-step diagnostic strategy.

RESULTS

We analysed 2580 patients with a mean age of 64 years±21, of whom 46.1% were women. The derived BAROC score comprises 12 categorical clinical variables. In the validation cohort, it safely ruled out BSI without BCs in 9% (58/648) of patients with a sensitivity of 100% (95% CI 95% to 100%), a specificity of 10% (95% CI 8% to 13%) and a negative predictive value of 100% (95% CI 94% to 100%). Adding laboratory variables (creatinine ≥177 µmol/L (2.0 mg/dL), platelet count ≤150 000/mm3 and neutrophil count ≥12 000/mm3) to the model, ruled out BSI in 10.2% (58/570) of remaining patients who had been positive on the BAROC score. The BAROC score with laboratory results had a sensitivity of 100% (95% CI 94% to 100%), specificity of 11% (95% CI 9% to 14%) and negative predictive value of 100% (95% CI 94 to 100%). In the validation cohort, there was no evidence of a difference in discrimination between the area under the receiver operating characteristic for BAROC score with versus without laboratory testing (p=0.6).

CONCLUSION

The BAROC score safely identified patients at low risk of BSI and may reduce BC collection in the ED without the need for laboratory testing.

Impact of a strategy based on unique blood culture sampling on contamination rate and detection of bloodstream infections in critically ill patients

BACKGROUND

Unique blood culture (UBC) has been proposed to limit the number of venipuncture and to decrease the risk of BC contaminations (BCC) without affecting their yield. We hypothesized that a multi-faceted program based on UBC in the ICU may reduce the rate of contaminants with a similar performance for bloodstream infections (BSI) identification.

METHODS

In a before and after design, we compared the proportion of BSI and BCC. A first 3-year period with multi-sampling (MS) strategy followed by a 4-month washout period, where staff received education and training for using UBC, and a 32-month period, where UBC was routinely used, while education and feedback were maintained. During the UBC period, a large volume of blood (40 mL) was sampled through a unique venipuncture with additional BC collections discouraged for 48 h.

RESULTS

Of the 4,491 patients included (35% female patients, mean age 62 years) 17,466 BC were collected. The mean volume of blood per bottle collected increased from 2.8 ± 1.8 mL to 8.2 ± 3.9 mL between the MS and UBC periods, P < 0.01. A 59.6% reduction (95% CI 56.7-62.3; P < 0.001) of BC bottles collected per week was observed between the MS and UBC periods. The rate of BCC per patient decreased between the two periods from 11.2% to 3.8% (73.4% reduction; P < 0.001) for the MS and UBC periods, P < 0.001. Meanwhile, the rate of BSI per patient remained stable at 13.2% and 13.2% for the MS and UBC periods, P = 0.98.

CONCLUSIONS

In ICU patients, a strategy based on UBC reduces the contamination rate of cultures without affecting their yield.

Antimicrobial resistance of bacteraemia in the emergency department of a German university hospital (2013-2018): potential carbapenem-sparing empiric treatment options in light of the new EUCAST recommendations

Background

This study investigated predominant microorganisms causing community-onset bacteraemia at the medical emergency department (ED) of a tertiary-care university hospital in Germany from 2013 to 2018 and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns.

Methods

Antimicrobial resistance patterns in patients with positive blood cultures presenting to an internal medicine ED were retrospectively analysed.

Results

Blood cultures were obtained at 5191 of 66,879 ED encounters, with 1013 (19.5%) positive results, and true positive results at 740 encounters (diagnostic yield, 14.3%). The most frequently isolated relevant microorganisms were Enterobacterales (n = 439, 59.3%), Staphylococcus aureus (n = 92, 12.4%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 34, 4.6%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n = 32, 4.3%), Streptococcus pyogenes (n = 16, 2.2%), Enterococcus faecalis (n = 18, 2.4%), and Enterococcus faecium (n = 12, 1.6%). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed a high proportion of resistance against ampicillin-sulbactam in Enterobacterales (42.2%). The rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was low (0.4%).

Piperacillin-tazobactam therapy provided coverage for 83.2% of all relevant pathogens using conventional breakpoints. Application of the new European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) recommendations increased the percentage of susceptible isolates to high-dose piperacillin-tazobactam to 92.8% (p < 0.001). Broad-spectrum carbapenems would only cover an additional 4.8%. The addition of vancomycin or linezolid extended coverage by just 1.7%.

Conclusions

Using an ureidopenicillin-beta-lactamase inhibitor combination at the high dose suggested by the new EUCAST recommendations provided nearly 93% coverage for relevant pathogens in patients with suspected bloodstream infection in our cohort. This might offer a safe option to reduce the empiric use of carbapenems. Our data support the absence of a general need for glycopeptides or oxazolidinones in empiric treatment.