DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i10.058

Pages: 4102-4104

Presence of microbes in blood i.e. bacteremia carries high risk of morbidity and mortality. Blood cultures form a critical part of evaluation of patients with suspected sepsis. The present study was undertaken to study the effect of duration of incubation for obtaining positive cultures. A total of 220 samples from 107 pediatric patients presenting with suspected bacteraemia were processed aerobically. Cultures were positive in 24.3% of the samples. But, following repeat cultures, only 18.7% were identified as true or persistent bacteremias. Blood cultures positive for isolates having doubtful pathogenicity have to be confirmed by repeat cultures or isolation from other sets to confirm the true bacteremias.