The Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol 16, Issue 4 497-499, Copyright © 1983 by Society for General Microbiology
Clinical comparison of glucose broth with nutrient broth blood cultures for the detection of "Streptococcus viridans" bacteraemia
D. C. Shanson, S. Akash and M. Harris
Viridans streptococci were isolated from the blood stream of half of 50
patients undergoing dental extractions approx. 2 min before blood culture.
Glucose and nutrient broths were tested in parallel. There was no
significant difference between the isolation rates of streptococci by the
two methods after incubation for 7 days, nor did the addition of glucose
0.1% to nutrient broth significantly increase the speed of detection of
streptococci; the isolation rates of streptococci during the first 48 h of
incubation were similar with both types of broth. Although there were a few
more isolations of streptococci from the glucose broth than from the
nutrient broth during the first 20 h, the difference was not statistically
significant. No rapid lethal effect against streptococci was observed in
glucose broth during incubation for 7 days. These results suggest that
adding glucose 0.1% to nutrient broth for blood culture does not influence
the recovery of organisms from patients with "Streptococcus viridans"
bacteraemia after incubation of the broth for 2-7 days.
