Factors affecting Brucella spp. blood cultures positivity in children

Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2013 Mar;13(3):176-80. doi: 10.1089/vbz.2012.0997. Epub 2013 Feb 19.

Abstract

Brucella infections have a wide spectrum of symptoms especially in children, making the diagnosis a complicated process. The gold standard for the final diagnosis for brucellosis is to identify the Brucella spp. isolated from blood or bone marrow cultures. The main purpose of this work was to evaluate the factors affecting the isolation of Brucella spp. from blood cultures. In our study, the ratio of fever, presence of hepatomegaly, and splenomegaly were found to be higher in the bacteremic group. In addition, C-reactive protein levels and liver function enzymes were found to be higher in the bacteremic group. In our opinion, while evaluating the febrile child with suspected Brucella infection, we highly recommend sampling blood cultures regardless of the history of previous antimicrobial therapy and duration of the symptoms.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Alanine Transaminase / blood
  • Aspartate Aminotransferases / blood
  • Bacteremia / diagnosis*
  • Bacteremia / epidemiology
  • Bacteremia / microbiology
  • Blood Specimen Collection
  • Bone Marrow / microbiology
  • Brucella / isolation & purification*
  • Brucellosis / diagnosis*
  • Brucellosis / epidemiology
  • Brucellosis / microbiology
  • C-Reactive Protein / analysis
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Fever
  • Hemoglobins / analysis
  • Hepatomegaly
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Splenomegaly
  • Turkey / epidemiology

Substances

  • Hemoglobins
  • C-Reactive Protein
  • Aspartate Aminotransferases
  • Alanine Transaminase