To the Editor.— The stated purpose of the study "Cultures of Blood Drawn by Catheters vs Venipuncture" (235:1877, 1976) was to determine the reliability of blood cultures drawn through venous and arterial cannulas relative to the standard percutaneous technique. The data provided, however, were not adequate to allow meaningful conclusions. Specifically, among the 161 comparisons in which percutaneous and catheter-drawn blood culture results agreed, in how many instances were both specimens positive and in how many were both negative?If only a small number of the 161 comparisons that agreed were both positive, then the false-positive rate of the cultures drawn from catheters would be unacceptably high. For example, if 15 were positive by both techniques, then 9 of 24 catheter specimens (37%) would be considered false-positive. This would be clearly unacceptable, even when dealing with organisms which are frequently contaminants, such as Staphylococcus epidermidis. If, however, among the
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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