Stock Photo - Photo essay at the hospital of Meaux 77, France. Department of bacteriology and mycology. Automaton of hemoculture, Bactec 9240 Becton Dickinson. This device enables to detect automatically the presence of micro_organisms bacteria, yeasts, champignons in the blood of the patient, in case of a suspicion of septicemia. A flask containing a medium of culture is inoculated by the blood of the patient. This medium contains ruthenium salts, metal having the particularity to emit a fluorescence, of which the intensity is all the stronger that the concentration in oxygen is high , this fluorescence is also sensible to variations of pH and oxydoreduction potential. When micro_organisms develop in the medium, they release CO2 which generates a proportional extinction of the fluorescence. A photodiode present on the flask sends a signal, which triggers an alert. The microbial growth is also recorded : the hemoculture is positive. This technique is named HFT homogenous fluorescence technology.