Utility of blood cultures in children admitted to hospital with community‐acquired pneumonia

Abstract

Blood cultures have a low yield and do not appear to be helpful when collected in all patients admitted to hospital with community-acquired pneumonia.

Community acquired pneumonia in children

“…Blood cultures are rarely performed in patients managed in the community, and hospitalised patients demonstrate a poor yield. 8 Nasopharyngeal secretions are easily obtainable, and the application of more sensitive techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has resulted in pathogen identification in 65-83% of reported cases. 9 Although rapid viral detection is now available with multiplex PCR techniques, differentiating bacterial superinfection from colonisation remains difficult.…”

Low utility of blood culture in pediatric community-acquired pneumonia

“…[5,6] This discrepancy was likely due to the exclusion of underlying medical conditions, along with the lower probability of selection bias in our cohort. The age of the children with bacteremia (2–3 years) corroborates the previous reports.…”

“…[1] The recent studies performed on hospitalized children with CAP show a prevalence of bacteremia, ranging from 1.1% to 7.0%, [2–5] and a BC-directed change in the antibiotic regimen of 4.6%. [4] However, the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommendation is based on low-quality evidence, and BC is still frequently performed on hospitalized children with CAP.…”

“…[4] However, the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommendation is based on low-quality evidence, and BC is still frequently performed on hospitalized children with CAP. [5,6] The overuse of BC can lead to unnecessary venipuncture and antibiotic treatment.…”

Things We Do For No Reason™: Routine Blood Culture Acquisition for Children Hospitalized with Community‐Acquired Pneumonia

“…6 When blood cultures are obtained for pediatric CAP, the incidence of a true bacterial bloodstream pathogen is 1.4%-7% of patients in the United States in the conjugate vaccine era. [7][8][9][10][11] Given that the practice of obtaining blood cultures varies widely among hospitalized patients and that cultures are often obtained based on perceived severity of presentation, 8,9,12 the true incidence of bacteremia in children with CAP would likely be lower if blood *Corresponding Author: David P Johnson, MD; E-mail: david.p.johnson.1@ vumc.org; Telephone: 615-875-9719 cultures were performed in all patients.…”