Abstract
BACKGROUND: Fungal infections are still a relevant challenge for clinicians involved in the cure of patients with cancer. We retrospectively reviewed charts of hospitalized patients with haematological malignancies (HMs), in which a documented fungaemia was diagnosed between January 2011 and December 2015 at 28 adult and 6 paediatric Italian Hematology Departments.
METHODS: During the study period, we recorded 215 fungal bloodstream infections (BSI). Microbiological analyses documented that BSI was due to moulds in 17 patients (8%) and yeasts in 198 patients (92%), being Candida spp identified in 174 patients (81%).
RESULTS: Mortality rates were 70% and 39% for mould and yeast infections, respectively. Infection was the main cause of death in 53% of the mould and 18% of the yeast groups. At the multivariate analysis, ECOG ≥ 2 and septic shock were significantly associated with increased mortality, and removal of central venous catheter (CVC) survival was found to be protective. When considering patients with candidemia only, ECOG ≥ 2 and removal of CVC were statistically associated with overall mortality.
CONCLUSIONS: Although candidemia represents a group of BSI with a good prognosis, its risk factors largely overlap with those identified for all fungaemias, even though the candidemia-related mortality is lower when compared to other fungal BSI. Management of fungal BSI is still a complex issue, in which both patients and disease characteristics should be focused to address a personalized approach.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | e13083 |
Journal | European Journal of Clinical Investigation |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 2019 |
Keywords
- Adolescent
- Adult
- Aged
- Candidemia/complications
- Child
- Female
- Fungemia/complications
- Hematologic Neoplasms/microbiology
- Humans
- Italy/epidemiology
- Male
- Middle Aged
- Prognosis
- Retrospective Studies
- Risk Factors
- Yeasts/isolation & purification
- Young Adult