A blood culture study comparing the new Bactec high-volume resin media with hypertonic media.

A blood culture study comparing the performance of the new high-volume Bactec resin media to hypertonic medium was conducted in adult patients seen in the emergency department. Twenty milliliters of blood was divided equally among three media: hypertonic (NR8A), aerobic high-volume resin (HV26), and anaerobic high-volume resin (HV27). During a 5.5-month period, 2,724 blood cultures were collected; there were 417 (15.3%) positive cultures, of which 233 (8.6%) yielded pathogens and 184 (6.8%) contaminants. For the 257 isolates recovered from 233 cultures yielding pathogens, the isolation rates were: NR8A-194 (75.5%), HV26-204 (79.4%), and HV27-189 (73.5%). We conclude that in this emergency department patient population, the rate and speed of recovery of pathogenic microorganisms is comparable in high-volume resin media and the hypertonic medium but that the high-volume resin media still has a definite advantage over standard nonradiometric media in adults because high-volume blood cultures (20 mL) can be performed using a two-bottle collection set rather than a three-bottle set.