Early Prediction of Bloodstream Infection with Complete Blood Count Parameters: an Ex-Vivo Human Whole Blood Model

Despite the advanced laboratory technologies available today, blood culture is the gold standard method in the diagnosis of bloodstream infections. Automated blood culture devices give blood culture results for laboratories approximately in 2 - 3 days up to 7 days. Moreover, some microorganisms like nonreproducible bacteria, fungi or viruses cannot be produced in culture. Among all samples taken for blood culture on suspicion of infection approximately 10% are determined as positive whereas the false positive rate due to contamination is 5%. Especially in life-threatening severe conditions such as sepsis early diagnosis and prompt treatment are crucial. Based on this the aim of this study is to investigate complete blood count parameters as potential early markers in Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans bloodstream infections using an ex vivo whole blood model.