Prognostic Value of Blood Cultures as an Illness Severity Marker in Emergency Medical Admissions
Conway, R.; O'Connell, B.; Byrne, D.; O'Riordan, D.; Silke, B.
Acute Medicine 19(2): 83-89
2020
ISSN/ISBN: 1747-4892 PMID: 32840258 Document Number: 18242
Positive blood cultures predict mortality. The prognostic value of blood culture performance itself has not been fully defined. We evaluated medical admissions from 2002-2017. We defined blood culture category as 1) no culture 2) negative culture 3) positive culture. We employed a multivariable logistic regression model to evaluate outcomes. We evaluated 78,568 blood cultures in 106,586 admissions. 30-day in-hospital mortality for no culture was 2.8% (95%CI 2.7, 2.9), culture negative 8.9% (95%CI 8.5, 9.3) and culture positive 16.7% (95%CI 15.5, 17.9). There was significant interaction between blood culture category and illness severity, OR 1.06 (95%CI 1.05, 1.08), and comorbidity, OR 1.09 (95%CI 1.09, 1.10). Performance and results of blood cultures are independently associated with increased mortality.
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