Isolation of Salmonella typhi from Standard Whole Blood Culture versus Blood-Clot Cultures

The use of 10 oxgall and bile broth medium, both supplemented with freshly prepared 100 uml streptokinase, for isolating Salmonella typhi by clot culture technique was evaluated and compared against whole blood culture systems 3 ml blood in 9 ml media and 8 ml blood in 72 ml media. These gave a 14 and 110 blood to medium ratio, respectively. Clot cultures in 10 oxgall CLOX gave a 57 positive isolation rate for S. typhi. A similar result was obtained from clot cultures in bile broth medium CLBB. A total of 184 samples identified as positive for S. typhi were tested. There was no significant difference between the use of 10 oxgall or bile broth medium when used for clot culture. The whole blood culture systems still showed a significantly better rate of isolation than the clot culture methods. Keywords Cultures biology Clot cultures Salmonella typhi Isolation of S. typhi Whole blood culture Blood-clot culture Reprints.