Article Text
Research Article
Improved method of isolating bacteria from joint fluids by the use of blood culture bottles.
Abstract
An analysis of 47 episodes of bacterial arthritis showed that applying a blood culture procedure to the culture of joint fluids gave positive results in 10 cases (21%) that were negative by conventional methods. When follow up samples taken during antibiotic treatment were considered the proportion of false negatives eliminated rose to 40%. The respective advantages of using a large volume of inoculum and a large volume of medium are that very low numbers of viable bacteria in infected fluid can be detected, and that growth inhibitors are diluted.