Increase in the diagnosis of mycobacteremia after the implementation of semi-automated blood culture at a Brazilian public health laboratory

Abstract INTRODUCTION The prevalence of hematogenous dissemination of mycobacteria is high in immunosuppressed patients. The isolation of mycobacteria in culture remains the standard procedure. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study based on the results of solid (Löwenstein-Jensen medium) and semi-automated liquid (BACTEC 9240) blood cultures, obtained from the Lacen-GO database. RESULTS The implementation of a semi-automated procedure resulted in an increase of 61.5% and 350.0% in the positive results for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and nontuberculous mycobacteria, respectively. This technique also accelerated the detection of positive results. CONCLUSIONS Semi-automated liquid blood culture showed a better performance in the diagnosis of mycobacteremia.