Published online Mar 9, 2024. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v13.i1.89085
Peer-review started: October 20, 2023
First decision: December 28, 2023
Revised: January 12, 2024
Accepted: February 21, 2024
Article in press: February 21, 2024
Published online: March 9, 2024
Processing time: 136 Days and 20.7 Hours
A previous study compared the vortexing and the Maki techniques for the diagnosis of catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI), and concluded that vortexing was not superior to the Maki method.
The above study did not compare the combined use of vortexing and Maki with respect to the Maki technique alone for the diagnosis of catheter tip colonization (CTC) and CRBSI.
To determine whether the combined use of vortexing and Maki techniques provide profitability to the Maki technique alone for the diagnosis of CTC and CRBSI.
Observational and prospective study. We included patients admited in one Intensive Care Unit that had suspicion of catheter-related infection (CRI) and with one central venous catheter for at least 7 d. The area under the curve (AUC) of the Maki technique, the vortexing technique and the combination of both techniques for the diagnosis of CTC and CRBSI were compared.
We included 136 episodes of suspected CRI. We found 21 episodes of CTC and 10 episodes of CRBSI. Of the 21 episodes of CTC, 18 (85.7%) were diagnosed by the techniques of Maki and vortexing, 3 (14.3%) were diagnosed only by the technique of Maki, and none was diagnosed only by the technique of vortexing. Of the 10 episodes of CRBSI, 9 (90.0%) were diagnosed by the techniques of Maki and vortexing, 1 (10.0%) was diagnosed by the technique of Maki alone, and none only by the technique of vortexing. No differences had found in the comparison of AUC between the technique of Maki alone and the combination of techniques for the diagnosis of CTC (P = 0.99) and CRBSI (P = 0.99).
The novel finding of our study was that the use combined of vortexing and Maki techniques did not provide profitability to the technique of Maki alone to CRBSI.
To study other quantitative techniques (as flushing) to compare the profitability of all of them for the diagnosis of CTC and CRBSI.