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Can you tell me where I can find a comparison of the Trek, Bactec , and Bac T ALERT blood culture systems ?I am specifically interested in Trek's claim that their bottles do not require solids to absorb antibiotics ( as the FAN and PLUS bottles are designed to do.
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Unfortunately, you will never likely find a study comparing the results of all three blood culture systems to one another for logistic reasons (amount of blood collected to provide an adequate comparison, patient consent for drawing more blood than necessary for the volume required, housing all three blood culture units somewhere while doing the study, etc.). In fact, the most recent comparison of the VersaTREK system versus BacT/ALERT using the REDOX media for the VersaTREK and the standard (not FAN) bottles for the BacT/ALERT (see below). Other "side by each" comparisons have been performed but not in the format that you are looking. I have an opinion concerning resins and/or inert materials to absorb antibacterial substances but it is mostly based on older studies i.e., that these substances are good for prolonging the recovery of staphylococci from blood culture bottles but don't significantly increase the number of patient cases of bacteremia detected. But don't take my word for it. If you have access to the internet, you can go to the PubMed site (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed), type in the key words you want to use for a search (e.g., VersaTREK), and see all that has been published thusfar. It's a good way of approaching your analysis of commercial assays without taking the word of a product representative. Good hunting.
Mirrett S, Hanson KE, Reller LB. Related Articles, Links
Controlled clinical comparison of VersaTREK and BacT/ALERT blood culture systems.
J Clin Microbiol. 2007 Feb;45(2):299-302. Epub 2006 Nov 22.
PMID: 17122016 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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