Comparison of Clinical Performance Between BacT/Alert Virtuo and BacT/Alert 3D Blood Culture Systems

BACKGROUND: BacT/Alert Virtuo (BioMérieux, Durham, NC, USA) is a recently developed blood culture system that includes functions of automatic registration, loading, and unloading of the blood culture bottles, as well as measurement of blood volume. We compared the performances between the BacT/Alert Virtuo and 3D (BioMérieux) blood culture systems. METHODS: A total of 952 patients (1,904 sets) visiting an university-affiliated hospital in Korea for blood cultures were enrolled. Five milliliters of blood was added into each of the two aerobic (FA Plus) and two anaerobic (FN Plus) bottles of the Virtuo and 3D systems for a single set. Positive rate and time to detection (TTD) were compared between the two systems. RESULTS: The positive rates were 8.3% and 8.4% in FA Plus bottles and 7.8% and 8.3% in FN Plus bottles, in the Virtuo and 3D systems, respectively (P>0.05). Median TTDs were shorter in the Virtuo than in the 3D system for all isolates (11.5 hours [N=305] vs 11.8 hours [N=318], P<0.001), Staphylococcus aureus (N=38; 14.3 hours vs 16.0 hours, P=0.021), and Escherichia coli (N=117; 10.4 hours vs 11.0 hours, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The Virtuo has the potential to detect pathogens early in all bottle types. This might improve the prognosis of sepsis by allowing for implementation of expeditious management.