Comparing clinical and microbiological methods for the diagnosis of true bacteraemia among patients with multiple blood cultures positive for coagulase-negative staphylococci.

We assessed the accuracy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clinical criteria as well as other microbiological methods for the diagnosis of coagulase-negative staphylococci bacteraemia. The CDC clinical criteria had low accuracy, which can be improved by speciation, particularly if the patient had more than two positive blood cultures.