Effect of delayed entry on performance of the BACT/ALERT FAN PLUS bottles in the BACT/ALERT VIRTUO blood culture system

Delayed entry of patient blood culture samples into a microbial detection system is unavoidable at times, due to off-shift staffing or transporting samples to centralized laboratories. Pre-incubation time and temperature of blood culture bottles are the most critical factors impacting recovery and detection of microorganisms. A total of 1377 BACT/ALERT® (BTA) Fastidious Antimicrobial Neutralization (FAN® PLUS) bottles (FA PLUS, FN PLUS, and PF PLUS) were tested after delayed entry times of 24 and 36 h at 20–25 °C (room temperature, RT) prior to loading into the BACT/ALERT® VIRTUO® microbial detection system (VIRTUO). Clinically relevant organisms were inoculated into bottles with 5–84 colony forming units (CFU) per bottle, and human blood (0 to 10 mL), and then loaded into the VIRTUO. When bottles were loaded without delay, a mean time to detection (TTD) of 9.6 h was observed. For delayed bottles, the TTD reported by the VIRTUO was added to the 24-h and 36-h delay times and resulted in average time to results of 32.5 h and 42.5 h, respectively. The FAN PLUS bottles in conjunction with the VIRTUO produced acceptable results when delays up to 24 h at 20–25 °C occur in loading.