A dedicated fungal culture medium is useful in the diagnosis of fungemia: a retrospective cross-sectional study

Background Mortality for candidemia ranges from 15% to 35%. Current guidelines recommend inoculating blood into three aerobic and three anaerobic blood culture bottles when candidemia is suspected, without mention of a fungal blood culture bottle. Objective To determine the value of the BACTEC Myco/F Lytic blood culture media in the diagnosis of fungemia. Methods A two-year retrospective cross-sectional study was performed for patients who had fungemia with submitted BACTEC Plus Aerobic/F (Aer), BACTEC Plus Anaerobic/F (Anaer) or Myco/F Lytic (Myco) blood culture bottles. Results The detection rate of fungemia was 77.4% in 93 patients with contemporaneously submitted blood culture bottles when limited to only Aer/Anaer culture results. The detection rate improved significantly with the addition of the Myco culture bottle results (p