The dark art of blood cultures / edited by William Michael Dunne, Jr., bioMerieux, Inc. Durham, North Carolina, and Carey-Ann Burnham, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Historical perspectives on the art and science of blood culture -- Conventional blood culture methods -- Lysis-centrifugation methods of blood culture -- Bactec blood culture systems -- The bioMerieux BacT/alert: automation at last in the black box -- TREK blood culture systems -- Molecular methods for detection of pathogens directly from blood specimens -- Pediatric blood cultures -- Epidemiology of bloodstream infections -- Best practices in blood cultures -- Processing positive cultures -- Fungal and mycobacterial blood cultures -- The bacterial blood microbiota/microbiome -- Postmortem blood culture.

In the clinical microbiology laboratory, blood is a critical diagnostic sample that, in the majority of cases is sterile (or is it?). However, when microbes gain access to and multiply in the bloodstream, it can result in life-threatening illness including sepsis. Mortality rates from bloodstream infection and sepsis range from 25% to 80%, killing millions of people annually. Blood cultures are a vital technology used in the microbiology laboratory to isolate and identify microbes and predict their response to antimicrobial therapy.