Identification of Catheter-Related Infections

To the Editor: Concerning the article by Maki, Weise and Sarafin (N Engl J Med 296:1305–1309, 1977), it appears that semiquantitative cultures more specifically identify catheter-related infections than broth cultures if the latter results are regarded as isolated bits of information. However, if laboratory reports are evaluated in conjunction with the overall clinical picture (Maki DG, Goldmann DA, Rhame FS: Infection control in intravenous therapy. Ann Intern Med 79:867–887, 1973), an improvement from this newer technic becomes less evident. The data of Maki, Weise and Sarafin show that broth cultures of catheters were positive in all cases of catheter-related.