75. Utility of Fungal Blood Cultures in Portland, Oregon

Abstract Background Fungal blood cultures (fungal isolators) should be used, if at all, primarily for identification of mold infections. At our institution we noted patients having fungal blood cultures drawn in many other situations, including when the primary team was concerned for candida bloodstream infection. We sought to describe the utility of this practice and of fungal blood cultures in general. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the results of fungal blood cultures for 2 years, from 3/1/2019-3/1/2021. We evaluated the number of episodes, culture results, whether there was a had prior bloodstream infection, and risk factors for fungal infection including renal replacement (RRT), ECMO, and immunosuppression (IS). Immunosuppression was defined as chronic systemic steroid use, recent receipt of high dose steroids within 2 weeks, history of organ transplantation, history of stem cell transplantation, hematologic malignancies, or receipt of a biologic agent. Results 187 fungal blood cultures were drawn in 143 patients - 80 cultures in 70 patients from 3/2019-3/2020 and 107 cultures in 73 patients from 3/2020-3/2021. Only 3 patients had positive fungal blood cultures:1 (Candida krusei) from 3/2019-3/2020 and 2 (Candida albicans and Cyrptococcus neoformans) from 3/2020-3/2021; in all 3 cases the organism also grew from standard blood culture isolators. From 3/2019-3/2020, 1/80 cultures were drawn from an individual on ECMO while 15/80 were drawn from individuals on RRT, and 32/80 were in a IS individuals. From 3/2020-3/2021, 45/107 cultures were drawn from an individual on ECMO, 24/107 were drawn in an individual on RRT, and 73/107 were drawn in a IS individuals. The majority of individuals in whom a fungal blood culture was drawn during 3/2020-3/2021 were individuals with COVID-19. Upon chart review most of the cultures were drawn due to concern for candidemia. Results of fungal blood cultures drawn from 3/2019-3/2021 at OHSU Conclusion Fungal blood cultures have an extremely low yield at our institution, with a 1.6% positivity rate over a 2 year period, and all of those cultures were detected by standard blood culture isolators. Most of these cultures were drawn in situations where this test has no utility. Furthermore, the test has limited utility to detect dimorphic and mold bloodstream infections. Restriction of this test may limit inappropriate use. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


Results.
We identified 257 patients, 111 (43.2%) who had SFA done in the ED and 146 (56.8%) as inpatients. Testing was deemed inappropriate in 46 (41.4%) of ED patients compared to 100 (68.5%) of inpatients (p< 0.0001). Documented indications for SFA are presented in Table 1. Among ED patients testing was most frequently considered inappropriate due to absence of diarrhea on the day of test collection (41.3%), and among inpatients due to the use of SFA for assessment of hospital-onset diarrhea (47.0%) ( Table 2). Overall, there were 94 (36.6%) positive SFA (Figure 2). Among ED patients, the percentage of positive SFA samples was 30.4% and 50.8% for inappropriate and appropriate testing respectively (p=0.03), while for inpatients it was 33.0% for inappropriate orders and 30.4% for appropriate orders (p=0.76). Antibiotics were prescribed to 28.2% and 28.1% of patients tested in the ED and inpatient service respectively.

Conclusion.
High proportions of inappropriate SFA testing were identified both in the ED and inpatient services, with distinct issues in each site. Characterization of the reasons underlying inappropriate use of SFA can aid in the design of diagnostic stewardship interventions tailored to each clinical setting.
Disclosures. Background. Fungal blood cultures (fungal isolators) should be used, if at all, primarily for identification of mold infections. At our institution we noted patients having fungal blood cultures drawn in many other situations, including when the primary team was concerned for candida bloodstream infection. We sought to describe the utility of this practice and of fungal blood cultures in general.
Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the results of fungal blood cultures for 2 years, from 3/1/2019-3/1/2021. We evaluated the number of episodes, culture results, whether there was a had prior bloodstream infection, and risk factors for fungal infection including renal replacement (RRT), ECMO, and immunosuppression (IS). Immunosuppression was defined as chronic systemic steroid use, recent receipt of high dose steroids within 2 weeks, history of organ transplantation, history of stem cell transplantation, hematologic malignancies, or receipt of a biologic agent.
Results of fungal blood cultures drawn from 3/2019-3/2021 at OHSU Conclusion. Fungal blood cultures have an extremely low yield at our institution, with a 1.6% positivity rate over a 2 year period, and all of those cultures were detected by standard blood culture isolators. Most of these cultures were drawn in situations where this test has no utility. Furthermore, the test has limited utility to detect dimorphic and mold bloodstream infections. Restriction of this test may limit inappropriate use.
Disclosures.  (uUTI) is one of the main causes of antibiotics prescription in outpatient setting. Current recommendations, based on studies from pre-antimicrobial resistance era, suggest that diagnosis of uUTI can be made based on clinical symptoms and that urine analysis leads only to a minimal increase in diagnostic accuracy. We analyzed urine cultures (UC) from patients with clinical diagnosis.
Methods. Prospective and observational study carried out in an Emergency Department during August 2016 to August 2017. Women older than 15 years with 2 or more classic symptoms of uUTI and the absence of vaginal discharge and irritation were included. Those with complicated and recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) were excluded. Urine cytology and UC were performed in all episodes. A bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed considering the probability of having a positive urine culture according to the different symptomatology variables.

Conclusion.
The results show that almost 50% of the patients with a clinical diagnosis of UTI had a negative urine culture. We consider it necessary to rethink the prescription of antibiotics without microbiological confirmation in the first episode of uUTI as a strategy to reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics.
Disclosures. All Authors: No reported disclosures

Opportunity for Improved Use of a Commercially Available Meningitis/ Encephalitis Panel in Pediatric Patients
Marilyn E. Valentine, MD 1 ; Jared Olson, PharmD 1 ; Emily A. Thorell, MD, MSCI 1 ; Anne Bonkowsky, MD/PhD 1 ; Jason Lake, MD, MPH 1 ; 1 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah Session: P-05. Antimicrobial Stewardship: Diagnostics/Diagnostic Stewardship Background. The BioFire® FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis (ME) panel delivers timely CSF analysis when meningitis or encephalitis is suspected and has the potential for earlier optimization of patient care. It is unclear if the M/E panel provides incremental benefit over standard microbiologic methods such as culture and cell counts, especially in the absence of significant pleocytosis. We evaluated the clinical utility of the ME panel with respect to CSF white blood cell count per high power field (WBC/hpf) and patient age.
Methods. We identified paired CSF ME panels and CSF cultures collected throughout a large healthcare system from 2016-May 2021 in children < 18 years of age. CSF results from the same calendar day were included in the dataset. We reviewed standalone HSV and Enterovirus (EV) CSF studies to determine frequency of duplicative testing. Results were stratified by CSF WBC/hpf and patient age (< 14 days, 14-60 days, > 60 days and < 5 years, and > 5 years).