Significación clínica y determinantes de patogenicidad de "Staphylococcus" coagulasa negativos aislados en hemocultivos

Abstract

Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) are the most frequently recovered bacteria from blood cultures. They are predominantly blood culture contaminants, because CoNS are common skin flora in humans, but they are also a significant cause of bacteremia. Many authors have proposed clinical and laboratory definitions about the management of blood culture, in the way to differentiate a CoNS or contaminant or true pathogen. In the practice, if only one of two or more sets is positive for CoNS, the positive result is presumed to be a contaminant, while of two or more blood cultures yield CoNS, probably indicate a true bacteremia. The validity of this commonly used clinical practice is not well defined. Our objective is to evaluate some factors, clinical and microbiological, in order to separate the CoNS producing true bacteremia from those who are contaminants.