Assessing the adequacy of blood culture collection in patients aged 80 years or older.

INTRODUCTION

Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are common and fatal conditions in hospitalized patients. Despite higher BSI mortality rates in older adult patients, predicting BSIs in this population remains challenging. This study aimed to assess whether blood culture (BC) collection is adequate for these patients.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective study of BCs collected from hospitalized patients between June 2020 and March 2024 at a tertiary care hospital in Japan.

RESULTS

A total of 11,674 BC sets were collected from 5837 hospitalized patients. The true-positive rate was significantly higher in patients aged ≥80 years than in those aged <80 years (13.6 % vs. 10.6 %, p < 0.001). Additionally, the contamination rate was higher in patients aged ≥80 years than in those aged <80 years (3.1 % vs. 2.2 %, p = 0.016). However, chills were less frequent in patients aged ≥80 years. Additionally, the median temperature was lower in older adult patients than in those aged <80 years.

CONCLUSIONS

BCs may be insufficiently collected in patients aged ≥80 years. Furthermore, a bundled intervention approach is needed for proper BC collection among patients aged ≥80 years.