On 2014 Sep 06, Ryan Radecki commented:

Post-publication commentary:

"Still Adrift in Ignorance Over Blood Cultures"

While supervising residents, one of the frequent diagnostic suggestions in undifferentiated febrile patients is: blood cultures. As an Emergency Physician, the utility of blood cultures – short of diagnosing endocarditis or another primary hematogenous source – is vanishingly small. After all, the source of infection is nearly universally somewhere else – lung, urine, CSF, skin & soft tissue – and relying on the blood to give you the answer two days later is an unreliable and impractical proposition.

This study is yet another attempt at identifying patients with high likelihood of bacteremia, retrospectively analyzing 5,499 patients at Odense University Hospital for whom blood cultures were drawn....

http://www.emlitofnote.com/2014/09/still-adrift-in-ignorance-over-blood.html

On 2014 Sep 06, Ryan Radecki commented:

Post-publication commentary:

"Still Adrift in Ignorance Over Blood Cultures"

While supervising residents, one of the frequent diagnostic suggestions in undifferentiated febrile patients is: blood cultures. As an Emergency Physician, the utility of blood cultures – short of diagnosing endocarditis or another primary hematogenous source – is vanishingly small. After all, the source of infection is nearly universally somewhere else – lung, urine, CSF, skin & soft tissue – and relying on the blood to give you the answer two days later is an unreliable and impractical proposition.

This study is yet another attempt at identifying patients with high likelihood of bacteremia, retrospectively analyzing 5,499 patients at Odense University Hospital for whom blood cultures were drawn....

http://www.emlitofnote.com/2014/09/still-adrift-in-ignorance-over-blood.html