Original article PDF Min-Kyung So1, Hae-Sun Chung1, Chung-Jong Kim2, Hee Jung Choi2, Miae Lee1 Departments of 1Laboratory Medicine, 2Internal Medicine, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea Corresponding to Miae Lee, E-mail: miae@ewha.ac.kr Ann Clin Microbiol 2016;19(3):70-76. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2016.19.3.70Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Background: Blood cultures are essential in diagnosing and treating sepsis. There are several factors that affect the diagnostic yield of blood cultures such as the number of blood sampling episodes, the incubation period, the type and volume of culture media, and the amount of blood drawn. This study aimed to elucidate whether monitoring the volume of blood drawn with an educational intervention could affect the diagnostic quality of blood cultures. Methods: We implemented quality monitoring for the blood volume drawn during blood culture testing for adults in an emergency room. We instructed the nurses in the emergency room to draw the optimal amount of

Original article Chorong Hahm1,2, Min-Kyung So1, Hae-Sun Chung1, Miae Lee1 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Ewha Womans University College of Medicine, Seoul, 2Eone Laboratories, Seoul, Korea. Corresponding to Miae Lee, E-mail: miae@ewha.ac.kr  Ann Clin Microbiol 2020;23(2):105-116. https://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2020.23.2.7Received on 5 March 2020, Revised on 28 April 2020, Accepted on 14 May 2020, Published on 20 June 2020.Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. Abstract Background: The AdvanSure TB/NTM plus real-time PCR (AdvanSure plus PCR; LG Chem., Korea) assay has been developed to increase the diagnostic sensitivity of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) compared with the currently used the AdvanSure TB/NTM real-time PCR (AdvanSure PCR; LG Chem., Korea) assay. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the performance of the AdvanSure plus PCR comparing the results with mycobacterial culture and the AdvanSure PCR. Methods: Patients (n=199) with suspected NTM or Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) were tested using AdvanSure plus PCR, AdvanSure PCR, acid-fast bacilli staining,