Clinical significance of potential contaminants in blood cultures among patients in a medical center.

Abstract

In an era of increasing glycopeptide resistance among Gram-positive cocci, clinical strategies for the early diagnosis of pseudobacteremia in cases with PCBCs are urgently required, in order to avoid the unnecessary use of glycopeptides. The proposed criteria and repeat blood culturing seem to be useful in the assessment of the clinical significance of PCBCs, and for reduction of the inappropriate use of glycopeptides.