Postmortem blood cultures. Evaluation of separate sampling of blood from the right and left cardiac ventricle.

Postmortem blood cultures were obtained by separate puncture of the right and left side of the heart during autopsy of 18 patients with solid cancer and 26 patients with non-neoplastic diseases. Concordant isolates were obtained from the right and left side in six patients (14%, 95% confidence limits: 5-28%). Growth was unilateral in 7 patients and cardiac aspirates were sterile in 31 patients (70%, 95% CL: 55-83%). One patient had been treated for Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia and eight patients had negative premortem blood cultures. Separate culture of blood from the right and left side of the heart may add to the information gained by postmortem blood culture.