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Table 3 Cultures performed.

From: Characteristics and outcomes of culture-negative versus culture-positive severe sepsis

Type of culturea

Culture-negative patients (n= 415)

Culture-positive patients (n= 586)

P value

Rate of culture positivity (%)b

Blood

410 (98.8)

579 (98.8)

1.00

20.3

Urine

310 (74.7)

445 (75.9)

0.65

11.0

Endotracheal aspirate

216 (52.0)

332 (56.7)

0.15

39.4

Expectorated sputum

101 (24.3)

146 (24.9)

0.84

34.8

Bronchoalveolar lavage

24 (5.8)

32 (5.5)

0.83

51.7

Pleural fluid

12 (2.9)

14 (2.4)

0.62

14.8

Stool

43 (10.4)

74 (12.6)

0.27

4.2

Peritoneal fluid

9 (2.2)

22 (3.8)

0.15

20.6

Bile

0 (0)

6 (1.0)

0.045

83.3

Liver abscess

0 (0)

7 (1.2)

0.046

85.7

Other abscess

1 (0.2)

3 (0.5)

0.65

60.0

Soft tissue and skin

9 (2.2)

36 (6.1)

0.003

65.5

Cerebrospinal fluid

8 (1.9)

8 (1.4)

0.48

12.5

Synovial fluid

1 (0.2)

5 (0.9)

0.41

88.9

Others

6 (1.4)

14 (2.4)

0.29

56.5

  1. aCultures collected within two days before and the two days after ICU admission were included; bcalculated as (total number of positive cultures divided by total number of cultures performed) × 100. ICU, intensive care unit.