Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>Blood culture is the standard diagnostic method for typhoid and paratyphoid (enteric) fever in surveillance studies and clinical trials, but sensitivity is widely acknowledged to be suboptimal. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine sources of heterogeneity across studies and quantified the effect of blood volume.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>We searched the literature to identify all studies that performed blood culture alongside bone marrow culture (a gold standard) to detect cases of enteric fever. We performed a meta-regression analysis to quantify the relationship between blood sample volume and diagnostic sensitivity. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of patient age, antimicrobial use, and symptom duration on sensitivity.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>We estimated blood culture diagnostic sensitivity was 0.59 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54–0.64) with significant between-study heterogeneity (I2, 76% [95% CI, 68%–82%]; P &amp;lt; .01). Sensitivity ranged from 0.51 (95% CI, 0.44–0.57) for a 2-mL blood specimen to 0.65 (95% CI, 0.58–0.70) for a 10-mL blood specimen, indicative of a relationship between specimen volume and sensitivity. Subgroup analysis showed significant heterogeneity by patient age and a weak trend towards higher sensitivity among more recent studies. Sensitivity was 34% lower (95% CI, 4%–54%) among patients with prior antimicrobial use and 31% lower after the first week of symptoms (95% CI, 19%–41%). There was no evidence of confounding by patient age, antimicrobial use, symptom duration, or study date on the relationship between specimen volume and sensitivity.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>The relationship between the blood sample volume and culture sensitivity should be accounted for in incidence and next-generation diagnostic studies.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Original publication

DOI

10.1093/infdis/jiy471

Type

Journal article

Journal

The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Publication Date

10/11/2018

Volume

218

Pages

S255 - S267