By Dr. K. Lertpocasombat, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand

King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital is one of the most modern and finest general hospitals in Thailand. The hospital was established in 1914 and offers medical care to the public regardless of their social status.

This large hospital is situated in the heart of the Bangkok business center, and accommodates over 1500 beds. It belongs to the Thai Red Cross Society and is affiliated with the faculty of medicine at Chulalongkorn University which is one of the best medical training facilities in Thailand.

In 2005 we acquired the VersaTREK Automated Microbial Detection System for automated blood culturing. Prior to 2005 the laboratory used manual methods and the Bactec blood culture system. One of the first differences the hospital noticed was the increase in positive samples from BACTEC to the VersaTREK System. The positivity rate increased from 9.4% in 2004 to 17.1% in 2005. In fact, there were significant increases in the number of Staphylococcus sp. including S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii. Time to positivity was also faster with several isolates recovered in the VersaTREK System, namely Coagulase negative Staphylococcus, S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and A. baumannii.

The table below summarizes the number of organisms isolated from 2004 and 2005.

The following fastidious organisms were found with the VersaTREK System in 2005:

• Abiotrophia adjacens • Brucella abortus • Campylobacter sp. • Rhodococcus equi • Pasturella multocida • Capnocytophaga sp.

• Neisseria gonorrhoeae • Neisseria elongate • Haemophilus aphrophilus • Veillonella sp. • Cryptococcus • P. marneffei (mold)

The VersaTREK System was able to recover more organisms than the Bactec when comparing years 2004 (BACTEC) and 2005 (VersaTREK). In addition, the VersaTREK System was able to do this with a faster time to detection for several organism groups. The listing of fastidious organisms recovered demonstrates the wide organism range that VersaTREK System can recover.