Mapping Blood Culture Contamination Research: A Bibliometric and Thematic Analysis for Sustainable Clinical Microbiology

Aydoğan O.

2nd International Sustainability in Life Congress (SUIC-II), İzmir, Türkiye, 9 - 12 Eylül 2026, ss.1, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: İzmir
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1
  • İstanbul Medipol Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Introduction: Blood culture contamination creates diagnostic uncertainty and may prompt unnecessary antimicrobial therapy, additional testing, prolonged hospitalization, and increased healthcare expenditure [1,2]. These consequences link prevention to diagnostic stewardship and sustainable clinical microbiology. This study mapped the field’s evolution, intellectual structure, and emerging themes.

Materials and Methods: Scopus was searched on 30 August 2026 using title terms for blood culture contamination, pseudobacteremia, and false-positive blood cultures. After one duplicate was removed, 424 records were analysed using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny 5.0.1. Citation analyses, author-keyword co-occurrence mapping, Louvain-based thematic mapping, and weighted-inclusion thematic evolution across 1968–2013, 2014–2020, and 2021–2026 were performed. 

Results: The corpus comprised 424 documents from 200 sources (1968–2026); 60.6% were published from 2012 onward, with 5.71% annual growth. It involved 2,073 authors and 5.32 co-authors per document, whereas international co-authorship was 4.95%; mean citations per document were 25.02. Thematic mapping identified quality improvement, antimicrobial stewardship, optimised collection, initial-specimen diversion, and antisepsis as motor themes, indicating a transition toward prevention-oriented research. Evolution analysis showed persistent blood-culture and false-positive-culture lineages, increasing integration of stewardship and collection interventions, and recent but limited emergence of true-bacteremia differentiation.

Discussion: The shift toward prevention and stewardship aligns with evidence that contamination imposes avoidable clinical and economic burdens [1,2]. Limited international collaboration and still-small diagnostic themes indicate priorities for coordinated, resource-conscious research.

Keywords: Blood culture contamination, bibliometric analysis, diagnostic stewardship, sustainable healthcare, thematic evolution