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Conclusions

New techniques have been recently proposed for the diagnosis of CRI. The most promising ones seem to be the direct examination of blood drawn from the catheter using the AOLC test and Gram stain, and the differential time to positivity of paired blood cultures. Both techniques could be more accurate for long-dwelling catheters, such as those used in cancer patients, than for short-term catheters. Therefore, these new tools have to be validated in different acute care settings before they can be recommended for routine use (50). The easiest method to set up immediately might be the differential time to positivity test, given many clinical microbiology laboratories use continuous monitoring blood culture systems, and many physicians investigate a new fever by drawing simultaneous catheter and venipuncture blood cultures

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Nitenberg, G., Blot, F. (2004). Diagnosis of Catheter-Related Infections. In: O’Grady, N.P., Pittet, D. (eds) Catheter-Related Infections in the Critically Ill. Perspectives on Critical Care Infectious Diseases, vol 8. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8010-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-8010-7_4

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