Evaluation of Optimal Blood Culture Incubation Time To Maximize Clinically Relevant Results from a Contemporary Blood Culture Instrument and Media System

Timely diagnosis of microorganisms in blood cultures is necessary to optimize therapy. Although blood culture media and systems have evolved for decades, the standard interval for incubation prior to being discarded as negative has remained 5 days. Here, we evaluated the optimal incubation time for the BacT/Alert Virtuo blood culture detection system (bioMérieux) using FA Plus (aerobic) and FN Plus (anaerobic) resin culture bottles in routine...