Bacteremia is as unpredictable as clinical manifestations in human brucellosis

SummaryObjectivesBecause of the suboptimal recovery rate of brucellae from blood, it has been proposed that cultures of bone marrow, liver tissue, and lymph nodes may improve the recovery rate of the organism. Data in support of these recommendations are limited and not clearly convincing, especially that of bone marrow culture. The main purpose of this work was to evaluate the roles of blood, bone marrow, liver, and lymph node cultures in the diagnosis of human brucellosis.MethodsBlood and bone marrow cultures were evaluated in parallel in 103 cases of human brucellosis using Castaneda's biphasic technique. Simultaneous cultures of blood, bone marrow, liver, and lymph node aspirates were also carried out for 13 of these 103 cases.ResultsBlood culture identified 47 (45.6%) cases and bone marrow culture identified 85 (82.5%) cases. Faster recovery of Brucella spp was accomplished with the bone marrow culture (2.8±0.7 days, p