However, there is a good chance that via
continuous bacteremia and disseminating proinflammatory cytokines developed over the time a low-grade inflammation with systemic consequences might be established.
Much of the discussion centered on whether the infective process produced a continuous or transient bacteremia and whether the blood cultures should be collected simultaneously (
continuous bacteremia) or at some arbitrary interval (transient bacteremia).
The third pattern is the "
continuous bacteremia," in which the body sheds bacteria directly into the blood stream (example: intravascular foci of infection, acute or subacute bacterial endocarditis).