Candidemia In Non-neutropenic Patients Research Articles

Candidemia in non-neutropenic patients with an intravenous hyperalimentation catheter: good prognosis of Candida parapsilosis infection.

Positive blood cultures reported between 1986 and 1993 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital were evaluated and all patients with an intravenous hyperalimentation catheter who developed candidemia, a total of 94 patients, were analyzed further, while patients with neutropenia were excluded. The primary diagnosis was malignancy in 87.2% of the cases, and Candida albicans and C. parapsilosis were the main organisms detected. A total of 17 patients died from candidemia. The patients who were positive for C. parapsilosis, however, all survived in spite of the fact that their main treatment was only removal of the catheter (20/32 cases), while eight of 25 patients who developed fungemia due to C. albicans died from the fungemia (p = 0.001). There were no significant differences in their risk factors. Because of the better outcome for the patients who developed candidemia due to C. parapsilosis, we might be able to consider less aggressive treatment for such patients.

Investigation of the sequence of colonization and candidemia in nonneutropenic patients

Among neutropenic patients with hematologic malignancies, candidemia has been shown to arise typically from autoinfection after colonization. In patients without neutropenia, we examined the similarities of strains colonizing or infecting various body sites and those subsequently causing Candida bloodstream infections. Strain similarity was examined by karyotyping and restriction endonuclease analysis of genomic DNA (REAG) by using two restriction enzymes (SfiI and BssHII). The banding patterns of 42 isolates from 19 patients were independently evaluated in a blinded fashion by three observers. The interobserver reliability measured with a generalized kappa statistic was 0.59 for karyotyping, 0.84 for REAG with SfiI, and 0.88 for REAG with BssHII (P < 0.001 for each). REAG classified the initial colonizing or infecting isolate and subsequent blood isolates as identical in 16 patients (84%). The mean duration of colonization or infection prior to a positive blood culture was 5 and 23 days in patients infected with related and unrelated isolates, respectively (P = 0.14; 95% confidence interval = -14.5 to 50.5). Karyotyping results matched the REAG results for isolates from 14 of the 19 patients (74%). In patients infected with identical isolates, the initial isolate was most frequently recovered from the urine (n = 5) or vascular catheter tips (n = 4). In the five subjects with organisms showing disparate results between the methods, karyotyping revealed different banding patterns, whereas REAG suggested that the isolates were identical. Candida colonization or infection with an identical strain frequently precedes bloodstream infection in nonneutropenic patients. Future studies should evaluate whether patients at high risk for candidemia and who have vascular catheter or urine samples that are positive for a Candida on culture should be treated empirically.