Magnolia Medical Technologies said that a new in-vitro study has indicated that the Steripath Initial Specimen Diversion Device (ISDD) may significantly improve the accuracy of blood cultures drawn from central venous catheters (CVCs).
Conducted by researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, this study was published in ‘Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology’. It represents the first assessment of a closed-system diversion device for this application, said the US-based medical equipment manufacturer.
The Steripath platform includes devices cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which are designed to reduce contamination in blood cultures. To date, over 20 clinical studies and nine peer-reviewed publications have validated the clinical and economic effectiveness of Steripath technology, according to Magnolia Medical Technologies.
Steripath ISDD and its variant, Steripath Micro, are said to have been adopted by more than 500 US hospitals and healthcare systems to address blood culture contamination issues.
Such contamination can lead to incorrect sepsis diagnoses and unnecessary antibiotic treatments. The study compared standard blood draw methods with those using Steripath ISDD in a simulated model of CVC colonisation and contamination.
Results showed that Steripath technology detected 100% of colonised CVCs while reducing false-positive culture rates from 36% to 16%.
This new research adds to existing evidence supporting Steripath ISDD’s impact on reducing false-positive blood cultures for peripheral venipunctures.
A separate study at Stanford University Medical Center demonstrated that using Steripath reduced blood culture contamination to zero in over 11,200 samples, significantly lowering false-positive central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs).
Clinicians have long faced challenges in distinguishing true bloodstream infections from contamination, particularly when drawing samples from central lines prone to contamination. The latest findings suggest that Steripath ISDD could enhance diagnostic reliability for these critical microbiology tests, said Magnolia Medical Technologies.
University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Internal Medicine Interim Chair Mark Rupp said: “By ensuring that colonised catheters are accurately detected, and contamination events are mitigated, clinicians can make more informed treatment decisions, reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, and improve patient outcomes.
“The Steripath ISDD technology used for CVC cultures in this study improved relative specificity and based on these results, warrants further investigation in a prospective clinical trial.”
