Diagnosis of brucellosis by use of BACTEC blood culture and confirmation by PCR

ABSTRACT

Brucellosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases in Iran. Growth of Brucella is slow and blood cultures of these bacteria are time-consuming via classical methods. We try to evaluate BACTEC 9120 system capacity in order to detect of bacteremia due to Brucella spp and to confirm isolated bacteria by PCR. Blood culture sample of 102 suspected patients evaluated by BACTEC 9120 system. They were subcultured when the machine detected their growth; if not; blind subcultures were performed on days 7, 14, 21 and 28. Forty-one of 102 suspected patients showed bactermia. Isolation rate of Brucellawas 40.2%. All patients were detected by BACTEC 9120 system. All positive blood culture was detected via BACTEC 9120 and blind subcultures. No positive blood culture bottles were missed by the system. Our data obtained by using the BACTEC 9120 system indicates a more rapid detection of Brucella than conventional methods: