Presence of microorganisms in sterile body sites can lead to life-threatening infections. For early and accurate diagnosis of these infections, cultures of the fluids have to be done. These cultures cannot always detect the causative agents due to insufficient number or fastidious growing of the probable microorganisms in the material. In this study, we aimed to compare body fluid cultures processed with conventional culture methods and automated culture system retrospectively. Studies have demonstrated that large-volume culture methods for body fluids other than blood increase recovery compared to traditional plated-medium methods. BacT/Alert is a fully automated blood culture system for detecting bacteremia and fungemia. The BacT/Alert system was evaluated for its utility to recover clinically significant bacteria from several body fluids, other than blood. Of the 148 specimens processed, 37 (25.00%) specimen recorded growth of microorganisms by the BacT/Alert bottles while only 7 (4.73%) specimen recorded growth of microorganisms on the plate cultures. The mean time to detection of growth was <24 hours for bacterial growth and 24 to 48 hours for Candida Species. Though there are chances of growth of contaminant microorganisms because of improper collection technique, improper transportation and sample storage. In our study 26 (17.56%) cultures were recorded growth of contaminant with Automated System. In conclusion, our study shows that inoculation of the sterile body fluid specimens into blood culture bottles and incubation of them in automated blood culture system increase the detection rate of probable causative agents
