Special Instructions

The test request form must state clinical diagnosis and time of collection. It is important to list current antibiotic therapy, clinical diagnosis, and any special organisms suspected or to be ruled out. Indicate if culture is specifically for Brucella or Francisella. Do not use expired blood culture media. Blood cultures should be drawn before the initiation of antimicrobial therapy, and strict aseptic technique is essential.

Limitations

Blood cultures may yield negative results in the absence of antimicrobial therapy. Prior antibiotic treatment can cause negative cultures or delayed growth. Special cultures are required for specific organisms like Brucella and fungi if suspected. Negative cultures do not rule out bacteremia due to false negatives when pathogens fail to grow. Positive cultures can sometimes be false positives due to contaminants. Organisms from skin flora such as coagulase-negative Staphylococcus present diagnostic dilemmas, often requiring careful clinical correlation and multiple culture sets for confirmation.

Biomarkers

LOINC Codes

Result Turnaround Time

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