Inactivation of Clinically Frequently Used Antimicrobial Agents By BacT/ALERT FAN Plus and BACTEC Aerobic and Anaerobic Culture Media in Simulated Blood Cultures: First Comparative Evaluation in China Mainland

PURPOSE: To evaluate the antimicrobial inactivation capabilities of BacT/ALERT (FA Plus and FN Plus) and BACTEC (Plus Aerobic/F and Lytic/10 Anaerobic/F) media. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The inactivation capabilities of the commercial blood culture media were compared using 21 microorganism-antimicrobial combinations in simulated adult blood cultures. RESULTS: BacT/ALERT culture media demonstrated higher detection rates than the BACTEC culture media. The recovery rates of the aerobic bottles were 74/115 (64.3%) for FA Plus bottles and 64/115 (55.7%) for BACTEC Aerobic Plus bottles. The BacT/ALERT FAN Plus culture media exhibited a shorter time to detection (TTD). The TTD of FA Plus media was 14.7 h, 4.85 h shorter than the BACTEC Aerobic media (19.55 h), while the TTDs of FN Plus media and BACTEC Anaerobic media were 16.8 h and 18.4 h, respectively. CONCLUSION: BacT/ALERT (FA Plus and FN Plus) media showed relative, but not absolute, advantages, as it had higher detection rates and shorter TTD and thus can be selectively applied to patients with prior use of antimicrobial agents before blood culture samples are taken.