Abstract
The results of 5034 blood cultures, implementing a lysis-centrifugation method with saponin, are summarized in this paper. Three hundred and twenty two blood samples (6·3%) obtained from a pool of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients yielded fungi. Cryptococcus neoformans was isolated in 199 samples (3·95%), Histoplasma capsulatum in 95 (1·89%). Candida parapsilosis in 12 (0·23%), C. albicans in 7 (0·13%), C. tropicalis in 2, C. krusei in 1, C. guillermondii in 1, and Prototheca wickerhamii in 4 (0·07%). Blood cultures were positive for C. neoformans in 76·23% of patients having a diagnosis of cryptococcosis and in 89·65% of those who had histoplasmosis. The blood culture was the first means of confirming the diagnosis in 23·8% of the patients with cryptococcosis and in 54% with histoplasmosis. In the four patients in whom P. wickerhamii was isolated, a diagnosis of disseminated protothecosis was not achieved by other findings. Catheter infections were responsible for the majority of recovered Candida spp.