A Re-Evaluation of Blood Culture as an Autopsy Procedure

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Abstract
Cultures of heart''s blood were performed on 62 consecutive autopsies in a general hospital. Over-all, 76% of the autopsy culture results demonstrated a positive correlation with the antemortem culture results or with anatomic data of the autopsy. When the culture was made less than 15 hours after death, the positive correlation rose to 83%. Cultures made more than 15 hours after death still manifested a positive correlation, but at a lower level, 64%. The frequency of isolation of Gram-negative organisms did not increase with increasing time following death. Of special interest was the observation that the isolation of pathogenic organisms was not notably reduced by the appropriate treatment of the patients with antibiotics.

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