scholarly journals Bright STAR Collaborative Consensus Guidelines for Blood Culture Use in Critically Ill Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s22-s23
Author(s):  
Charlotte Woods-Hill ◽  
Danielle Koontz ◽  
Annie Voskertchian ◽  
Marlene Miller ◽  
James Fackler ◽  
...  

Background: Blood cultures are essential diagnostic tools used to identify bloodstream infections and to guide antimicrobial therapy. However, collecting cultures without clear indications or that do not inform management can lead to false-positive results and unnecessary use of antibiotics. Blood culture practices vary significantly in critically ill children. Our objective was to create a consensus guideline focusing on when to safely avoid blood cultures in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients. Methods: A panel of multidisciplinary experts, many participating in the Blood Culture Improvement Guidelines and Diagnostic Stewardship for Antibiotic Reduction in Critically Ill Children (Bright STAR) Collaborative, engaged in a 2-part modified Delphi process. Round 1 consisted of a preparatory literature summary and an electronic survey sent to subject matter experts (SMEs). In the survey, SMEs rated a series of recommendations about when to avoid blood cultures on a 5-point Likert scale, 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest score. Consensus was achieved for each recommendation if 75% of respondents chose a score of 4 or 5, and these were included in the final guideline. Any recommendations that did not meet these a priori criteria for consensus were set aside for discussion during the in-person expert panel review (round 2). An outside expert in consensus methodology facilitated round 2. After a review of the survey results and comments from round 1 and group discussion, the SMEs voted on these recommendations in real time. Voting was blinded. Participants included Bright STAR site leads, national content experts, and representatives from relevant national societies. Results: We received 29 completed surveys from 34 invited participants for an 85% response rate. Of the 27 round 1 recommendations, 18 met predetermined criteria for consensus. Round 2 included 26 in-person voting participants who (1) discussed and modified the 9 recommendations that had not met round 1 consensus, and (2) modified for clarity or condensed from multiple into single recommendations the 18 recommendations that had met the round 1 consensus. The final document contains 19 recommendations that provide guidance on how to safely improve blood culture use in PICU patients (Table 1). Also, 8 recommendations discussed did not reach consensus for inclusion. Conclusions: Using a modified Delphi process, we created consensus recommendations on when to avoid blood cultures and prevent overuse in critically ill children. These guidelines are a critical step in disseminating diagnostic stewardship and reducing unnecessary testing on a wider scale.Funding: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, R18 HS025642-01, 9/2017 – 9/2020 (Aaron Milstone, PI)Disclosures: None

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (S1) ◽  
pp. s27-s27
Author(s):  
Danielle Koontz ◽  
Charlotte Woods-Hill ◽  
Annie Voskertchian ◽  
Anping Xie ◽  
Marlene Miller ◽  
...  

Group Name: Bright STAR Authorship GroupBackground: Blood cultures are fundamental in the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis. Culture practices vary widely, and overuse can lead to false-positive results and unnecessary antibiotics. Our objective was to describe the implementation of a multisite quality improvement collaborative to reduce unnecessary blood cultures in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients, and its 18-month impact on blood culture rates and safety metrics. Methods: In 2018, 14 PICUs joined the Blood Culture Improvement Guidelines and Diagnostic Stewardship for Antibiotic Reduction in Critically Ill Children (Bright STAR) Collaborative, designed to understand and improve blood culture practices in critically ill children. Guided by a centralized multidisciplinary study team, sites first reviewed existing evidence for safe reduction of unnecessary blood cultures and assessed local practices and barriers to change. Subsequently, local champions developed and implemented clinical decision-support tools informed by local patient needs to guide new blood-culture practices. The coordinating study team facilitated regular evaluations and discussions of project progress through monthly phone calls, site visits if requested by sites or the study team, and collaborative-wide teleconferences. The study team collected monthly blood culture rates and monitored for possible delays in obtaining blood cultures using a standardized review process as a safety balancing metric. We compared 24 months of baseline data to 18 months of postimplementation using a Poisson regression model accounting for the site-specific patient days and correlation of culture use within a site over time. Results: Across the 14 sites, before implementation, 41,768 blood cultures were collected over 259,701 PICU patient days. The mean preimplementation site-specific blood culture rate was 15.7 cultures per 100 patient days (rate range, 9.6–48.2 cultures per 100 patient days). After implementation, 22,397 blood cultures were collected over 208,171 PICU patient days. The mean postimplementation rate was 10.4 cultures per 100 patient days (rate range, 4.7–28.3 cultures per 100 patient days), which was 33.6% lower than the preimplementation (relative rate 0.66; 95% CI, 0.65–0.68 p <0.01). In 18 months post-implementation, sites reviewed 793 positive blood cultures, and identified only one suspected delay in culture collection possibly attributable to the site’s blood culture reduction program. Conclusions: Multidisciplinary quality improvement teams safely facilitated a 33.6% average reduction in blood culture use in critically ill children at 14 hospitals. Future collaborative work will determine the impact of blood culture diagnostic stewardship on antibiotic use and other important patient safety outcomes.Funding: NoDisclosures: None


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S685-S686
Author(s):  
Charlotte Z Woods-Hill ◽  
Danielle W Koontz ◽  
Annie Voskertchian MPH ◽  
Anping Xie PhD ◽  
Marlene R Miller ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Overuse of blood cultures can lead to false positives and unnecessary antibiotics. Our objective was to describe the implementation and 12-month impact of a multi-site quality improvement collaborative to reduce unnecessary blood cultures in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients. Methods In 2018, 14 PICUs joined the Blood Culture Improvement Guidelines and Diagnostic Stewardship for Antibiotic Reduction in Critically Ill Children (Bright STAR) Collaborative, designed to understand and improve blood culture practices in PICUs. Guided by a multidisciplinary study team, sites 1) reviewed existing evidence for safe blood culture reduction, 2) assessed local practices and barriers to change, and 3) developed and implemented new blood culture practices informed by local context. We facilitated and monitored project progress through phone calls, site visits, and collaborative-wide teleconferences. We collected monthly blood culture rates and monitored for delays in culture collection as a safety balancing metric. We compared 24 months of baseline data to post-implementation data (2-14 months) using a Poisson regression model accounting for the site-specific patient days and correlation of culture use within a site over time. Results Across 14 sites, there were 41,986 pre-implementation blood cultures collected over 238,182 PICU patient days. The mean pre-implementation site-specific blood culture rate was 19.42 cultures/100 patient days (range 9.59 to 48.18 cultures/100 patient days). Post-implementation, there were 12,909 blood cultures collected over 118,600 PICU patient days. The mean post-implementation rate was 14.02 cultures/100 patient days (range 5.40 to 37.57 cultures/100 patient days), a 23% decrease (relative rate 0.77, 95% CI: 0.60, 0.99, p = 0.04). In 12 months post-implementation, sites reviewed 463 positive blood cultures, and identified only one suspected delay in culture collection possibly attributable to the site’s culture reduction program. Bright STAR Collaborative Site Blood Culture Rate 100 Patient Days Conclusion Multidisciplinary teams facilitated a 23% average reduction in blood culture use in 14 PICUs. Future work will determine the impact of blood culture diagnostic stewardship on antibiotic use and other important patient safety outcomes. Disclosures James C. Fackler MD, MD, Rubicon Health LLC (Other Financial or Material Support, Founder)


2019 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 144-147
Author(s):  
Christine Anh-Thu Tran ◽  
Jenna Verena Zschaebitz ◽  
Michael Campbell Spaeder

AbstractBlood culture acquisition is integral in the assessment of patients with sepsis, though there exists a lack of clarity relating to clinical states that warrant acquisition. We investigated the clinical status of critically ill children in the timeframe proximate to acquisition of blood cultures. The associated rates of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (72%) and sepsis (57%) with blood culture acquisition were relatively low suggesting a potential overutilization of blood cultures. Efforts are needed to improve decision making at the time that acquisition of blood cultures is under consideration and promote percutaneous blood draws over indwelling lines.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 2116-2126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Marschal ◽  
Johanna Bachmaier ◽  
Ingo Autenrieth ◽  
Philipp Oberhettinger ◽  
Matthias Willmann ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Bloodstream infections (BSI) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Increasing rates of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens limit treatment options, prompting an empirical use of broad-range antibiotics. Fast and reliable diagnostic tools are needed to provide adequate therapy in a timely manner and to enable a de-escalation of treatment. The Accelerate Pheno system (Accelerate Diagnostics, USA) is a fully automated test system that performs both identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) directly from positive blood cultures within approximately 7 h. In total, 115 episodes of BSI with Gram-negative bacteria were included in our study and compared to conventional culture-based methods. The Accelerate Pheno system correctly identified 88.7% (102 of 115) of all BSI episodes and 97.1% (102 of 105) of isolates that are covered by the system's identification panel. The Accelerate Pheno system generated an AST result for 91.3% (95 of 104) samples in which the Accelerate Pheno system identified a Gram-negative pathogen. The overall category agreement between the Accelerate Pheno system and culture-based AST was 96.4%, the rates for minor discrepancies 1.4%, major discrepancies 2.3%, and very major discrepancies 1.0%. Of note, ceftriaxone, piperacillin-tazobactam, and carbapenem resistance was correctly detected in blood culture specimens with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli ( n = 7) and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( n = 3) strains. The utilization of the Accelerate Pheno system reduced the time to result for identification by 27.49 h ( P < 0.0001) and for AST by 40.39 h ( P < 0.0001) compared to culture-based methods in our laboratory setting. In conclusion, the Accelerate Pheno system provided fast, reliable results while significantly improving turnaround time in blood culture diagnostics of Gram-negative BSI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-29
Author(s):  
Charlotte Woods-Hill ◽  
Elizabeth Colantuoni ◽  
Danielle Koontz ◽  
Annie Voskertchian ◽  
Anping Xie ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Z. Woods-Hill ◽  
Danielle W. Koontz ◽  
Annie Voskertchian ◽  
Anping Xie ◽  
Judy Shea ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1170
Author(s):  
Gabriel Haddad ◽  
Sara Bellali ◽  
Tatsuki Takakura ◽  
Anthony Fontanini ◽  
Yusuke Ominami ◽  
...  

Blood culture is currently the most commonly used method for diagnosing sepsis and bloodstream infections. However, the long turn-around-time to achieve microbe identification remains a major concern for clinical microbiology laboratories. Gram staining for preliminary identification remains the gold standard. We developed a new rapid strategy using a tabletop scanning electron microscope (SEM) and compared its performance with Gram staining for the detection of micro-organisms and preliminary identification directly from blood cultures. We first optimised the sample preparation for twelve samples simultaneously, saving time on imaging. In this work, SEM proved its ability to identify bacteria and yeasts in morphotypes up to the genus level in some cases. We blindly tested 1075 blood cultures and compared our results to the Gram staining preliminary identification, with MALDI-TOF/MS as a reference. This method presents major advantages such as a fast microbe identification, within an hour of the blood culture being detected positive, low preparation costs, and data traceability. This SEM identification strategy can be developed into an automated assay from the sample preparation, micrograph acquisition, and identification process. This strategy could revolutionise urgent microbiological diagnosis of infectious diseases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bangchuan Hu ◽  
Yue Tao ◽  
Ziqiang Shao ◽  
Yang Zheng ◽  
Run Zhang ◽  
...  

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) have recently demonstrated a great potential for pathogen detection. However, few studies have been undertaken to compare these two nucleic acid detection methods for identifying pathogens in patients with bloodstream infections (BSIs). This prospective study was thus conducted to compare these two methods for diagnostic applications in a clinical setting for critically ill patients with suspected BSIs. Upon suspicion of BSIs, whole blood samples were simultaneously drawn for ddPCR covering 20 common isolated pathogens and four antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes, mNGS, and blood culture. Then, a head-to-head comparison was performed between ddPCR and mNGS. A total of 60 episodes of suspected BSIs were investigated in 45 critically ill patients, and ddPCR was positive in 50 (83.3%), mNGS in 41 (68.3%, not including viruses), and blood culture in 10 (16.7%) episodes. Of the 10 positive blood cultures, nine were concordantly identified by both mNGS and ddPCR methods. The head-to-head comparison showed that ddPCR was more rapid (~4 h vs. ~2 days) and sensitive (88 vs. 53 detectable pathogens) than mNGS within the detection range of ddPCR, while mNGS detected a broader range of pathogens (126 vs. 88 detectable pathogens, including viruses) than ddPCR. In addition, a total of 17 AMR genes, including 14 blaKPC and 3 mecA genes, were exclusively identified by ddPCR. Based on their respective limitations and strengths, the ddPCR method is more useful for rapid detection of common isolated pathogens as well as AMR genes in critically ill patients with suspected BSI, whereas mNGS testing is more appropriate for the diagnosis of BSI where classic microbiological or molecular diagnostic approaches fail to identify causative pathogens.


2004 ◽  
Vol 132 (5) ◽  
pp. 921-925 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. MÜLLER-PREMRU ◽  
P. ČERNELČ

Catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) is common in haematological patients with febrile neutropenia. As the clinical signs of CRBSI are usually scarce and it is difficult to differentiate from blood culture contamination, we tried to confirm CRBSI by molecular typing of CNS isolated from paired blood cultures (one from a peripheral vein and another from the central venous catheter hub). Blood cultures were positive in 59 (36%) out of 163 patients. CNS were isolated in 24 (40%) patients; in 14 from paired blood cultures (28 isolates) and in 10 from a single blood culture. CNS from paired blood cultures were identified as Staphylococcus epidermidis. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined and bacteria were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) of bacterial genomic DNA. In 13 patients, the antibiotic susceptibility of isolates was identical. The PFGE patterns from paired blood cultures were identical or closely related in 10 patients, thus confirming the presence of CRBSI. In the remaining four patients they were unrelated, and suggested a mixed infection or contamination. Since CNS isolates from three patients had identical PFGE patterns, they were probably nosocomially spread amongst them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Granato ◽  
Melissa M. Unz ◽  
Raymond H. Widen ◽  
Suzane Silbert ◽  
Stephen Young ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The iC-GPC Assay (iCubate, Huntsville, AL) is a qualitative multiplex test for the detection of five of the most common Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, and Enterococcus faecium) responsible for bacterial bloodstream infections, performed directly from positive blood cultures. The assay also detects the presence of the mecA, vanA, and vanB resistance determinants. This study comparatively evaluated the performance of the iC-GPC Assay against the Verigene Gram-positive blood culture (BC-GP) assay (Luminex Corp., Austin, TX) for 1,134 patient blood culture specimens positive for Gram-positive cocci. The iC-GPC Assay had an overall percent agreement with the BC-GP assay of 95.5%. Discordant specimens were further analyzed by PCR and a bidirectional sequencing method. The results indicate that the iC-GPC Assay together with the iCubate system is an accurate and reliable tool for the detection of the five most common Gram-positive bacteria and their resistance markers responsible for bloodstream infections.


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