ASM virtual journal club on blood cultures

The American Society for Microbiology used its Sept. 8 virtual journal club to focus clinicians and laboratorians on a stubborn diagnostic problem: blood-culture contamination. ASM’s event page said the session was part of its Clinical Microbiology Virtual Journal Club series and centered on recent Journal of Clinical Microbiology papers about contamination and interpretation of positive cultures. Blood cultures are a routine part of sepsis and bloodstream-infection workups, but contamination can complicate treatment decisions, antimicrobial use and laboratory quality monitoring. ASM’s journal club framing pointed readers to papers on contamination rates, diversion devices and the clinical meaning of a single positive culture, showing the session was built around both prevention and interpretation. (asm.org) ### Which papers did ASM put at the center of the session? ASM’s Clinical Microbiology Virtual Journal Club page listed “Blood Culture Contamination—Sept. 8, 2026” and named two 2026 Journal of Clinical Microbiology articles. One was “Comparison of blood culture contamination rates with standard practice versus two blood diversion devices at a single institution,” published June 29, 2026. The other was “Clinical implications of a single Staphylococcus lugdunensis-positive blood culture: true bacteremia vs. contamination.” (asm.org) The Journal of Clinical Microbiology is ASM’s clinical diagnostics journal and publishes research on laboratory diagnosis and management of infections, according to the journal’s homepage. That made the journal club a review of new primary literature rather than a general educational webinar. ### Why does blood-culture contamination keep drawing attention? A 2025 Journal of Clinical Microbiology commentary called blood-culture contamination “a major healthcare challenge” and said U.S. hospitals still lack a standardized process to monitor and report contamination rates. (asm.org) The commentary said multicenter data showed variation in surveillance methods, reporting practices and prevention strategies across 52 centers. (journals.asm.org) ASM has also kept blood-culture contamination in its formal guidance library. ASM’s practical-guidance page lists a 2019 document described as “a comprehensive update on the problem of blood culture contamination and a discussion of methods for addressing the problem.” ### What practical questions were clinicians and labs likely reviewing? The June 2026 JCM paper on diversion devices examined contamination rates under standard practice versus two blood diversion devices at a single institution, according to the article page. (journals.asm.org) That places specimen collection technique and device use at the center of one side of the discussion. A separate JCM study on blood-culture growth patterns said rapidly distinguishing contaminants from true pathogens is important for antimicrobial stewardship and avoiding unnecessary antibiotic therapy. (asm.org) That paper reported that discordant growth of coagulase-negative staphylococci in a two-bottle set had a 98.1% negative predictive value for true bacteremia in its study population. The Staphylococcus lugdunensis paper named on ASM’s event page points to another common clinical problem: how to interpret a single positive blood culture when contamination remains possible but missing a true bloodstream infection carries risk. (journals.asm.org) ASM’s selection of that paper alongside the diversion-device study suggests the session paired preanalytic prevention with bedside interpretation. That is an inference from the paper lineup, not a direct quote from ASM. (journals.asm.org) ### Where does this fit in ASM’s broader program? ASM’s journal club sits inside a standing Clinical Microbiology Virtual Journal Club series hosted on ASM’s webinar page. The society’s site shows the Sept. 8 blood-culture session as one installment in that broader educational format. The next step for readers is on ASM’s own pages. ASM’s webinar listing and the Journal of Clinical Microbiology site identify the Sept. 8 session, the cited articles and the journal issue archive where related papers can be found. (asm.org)