In the clinical microbiology laboratory, blood is a critical diagnostic sample that, in the majority of cases is sterile (or is it?). However, when microbes gain access to and multiply in the bloodstream, it can result in life-threatening illness including sepsis. Mortality rates from bloodstream infection and sepsis range from 25% to 80%, killing millions of people annually. Blood cultures are a vital technology used in the microbiology laboratory to isolate and identify microbes and predict their response to antimicrobial therapy. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures, edited by Wm. Michael Dunne, Jr., and Carey-Ann D. Burnham, surveys the entire field of blood culture technology, providing valuable information about every phase of the process, from drawing samples to culture methods to processing positive cultures. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is organized around several major topics. History of blood culture methods. Details the timeline of blood culture methods from manual through automated and describes the technological development of the leading automated blood culture systems (Bactec, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK). Manual and automated blood culture methods. Critiques manual and automated methods for setting up blood cultures for adult and pediatric patients. Detection of pathogens directly from blood specimens. Describes currently available CE marked and FDA-cleared commercial tests using both phenotypic and genotypic markers, including their strengths and limitations. The workflow of culturing blood. Includes best practices from specimen collection to culture system verification, processing positive cultures for microbe identification and antibiotic susceptibility determination, along with the epidemiology of positive blood cultures and the value of postmortem blood cultures. Microorganisms in the blood. Examines the concept of a blood microbiome in healthy and diseased individuals. The Dark Art of Blood Cultures is a resource that clinicians, laboratorians, lab directors, and hospital administrators will find engaging and extremely useful.

Offering a cultural history of blood as it was mobilized across twentieth-century U.S. medicine, militarisms, and popular culture, Hannabach examines the ways that blood has saturated the cultural imaginary.

Offering a cultural history of blood as it was mobilized across twentieth-century U.S. medicine, militarisms, and popular culture, Hannabach examines the ways that blood has saturated the cultural imaginary. In the clinical microbiology laboratory, blood is a critical diagnostic sample that, in the majority of cases is sterile (or is it?). However, when microbes gain access to and multiply in the bloodstream, it can result in life-threatening illness including sepsis. Mortality rates from bloodstream infection and sepsis range from 25% to 80%, killing millions of people annually. Blood cultures are a vital technology used in the microbiology laboratory to isolate and identify microbes and predict their response to antimicrobial therapy. History of blood culture methods. Details the timeline of blood culture methods from manual through automated and describes the technological development of the leading automated blood culture systems (Bactec, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK). Manual and automated blood culture methods. Critiques manual and automated methods for setting up blood cultures for adult and pediatric patients. Detection of pathogens directly from blood specimens. Describes currently available CE marked and FDA-cleared commercial tests using both phenotypic and genotypic markers, including their strengths and limitations. The workflow of culturing blood. Includes best practices from specimen collection to culture system verification, processing positive cultures for microbe identification and antibiotic susceptibility determination, along with the epidemiology of positive blood cultures and the value of postmortem blood cultures. Microorganisms in the blood. Examines the concept of a blood microbiome in healthy and diseased individuals.

Blood cultures are the gold standard for the diagnosis of bacteremia. Blood culture testing is routinely used to diagnose infections in patients within the acute care hospital setting. The problem faced with this diagnostic test is the increase in nonpathogenic flora, which is considered contaminated flora. Contaminated blood cultures adversely impact health care and medical expenditure. False-positive blood cultures lead to unnecessary use of antibiotics, extended length of stay in the hospital and additional microbiological studies. Contaminated cultures are costly to all parties involved. The aim of this project is to decrease blood culture contamination in a Southwest Community Hospital. This paper discusses the educational intervention in an emergency department to decrease the amount of false-positive blood cultures. The implementation of the multi-step intervention was to first educate the staff on the proper collection technique, monitor the individual collectors on a monthly basis and provide one-on-one feedback on their individual contamination rate. The goal of the project was to decrease collector contamination rate below the national standard of a 3% contamination rate. The individual collectors were acknowledge for zero contaminations by their manager and counseled if exceeded the national standard. Evidence-based research studies have proven adequate monitoring and oversight contributes to significant and ongoing reductions in blood culture contamination (Denno, 2013).