Prognosis of neutropenic patients admitted to the intensive care unit.

PURPOSE: The prognosis of critically ill cancer patients has improved recently. Controversies remain as regard to the specific prognosis impact of neutropenia in critically ill cancer patients. The primary objective of this study was to assess hospital outcome of critically ill neutropenic cancer patients admitted into the ICU. The secondary objective was to assess risk factors for unfavorable outcome in this population of patients and specific impact of neutropenia. METHODS: We performed a post hoc analysis of a prospectively collected database. The study was carried out in 17 university or university-affiliated centers in France and Belgium. Neutropenia was defined as a neutrophil count lower than 500/mm(3). RESULTS: Among the 1,011 patients admitted into the ICU during the study period 289 were neutropenic at the time of admission. Overall, 131 patients died during their hospital stay (hospital mortality 45.3 %). Four variables were associated with a poor outcome, namely allogeneic transplantation (OR 3.83; 95 % CI 1.75-8.35), need for mechanical ventilation (MV) (OR 6.57; 95 % CI 3.51-12.32), microbiological documentation (OR 2.33; CI 1.27-4.26), and need for renal replacement therapy (OR 2.77; 95 % CI 1.34-5.74). Two variables were associated with hospital survival, namely age younger than 70 (OR 0.22; 95 % CI 0.1-0.52) and neutropenic enterocolitis (OR 0.37; 95 % CI 0.15-0.9). A case-control analysis was also performed with patients of the initial database; after adjustment, neutropenia was not associated with hospital mortality (OR 1.27; 95 % CI 0.86-1.89). CONCLUSION: Hospital survival was closely associated with younger age and neutropenic enterocolitis. Conversely, need for conventional MV, for renal replacement therapy, and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were associated with poor outcome.

[Non-fatal disseminated mucormycosis in a solid organ transplant]. / Mucormycose disséminée d'évolution favorable chez une greffée pulmonaire.

BACKGROUND: Mucormycosis is a rare fungal infection occurring most frequently in immunocompromised patients. The pathogens are filamentous fungi, order of Mucorales. Disseminated mucormycosis is a severe, life treating disease. Early diagnosis is a major determinant for prognosis, however, it remains difficult. The management consists in an early antifungal therapy using lipid formulation of amphotericin B associated with an extensive surgical debridement. Despite this therapeutic of choice, the mortality of disseminated mucormycosis remains high. OBSERVATION: We report the case of disseminated mucormycosis in a 25 years old woman 9 months after a pulmonary transplantation. The clinical presentation included pulmonary and thyroid localization and the pathogen was Absidia corymbifera. The patient survived thanks to a large surgical debridement, and an early antifungal bitherapy by lipid formulation of amphotericin B and posaconazole. CONCLUSION: The re-emergence and the high mortality of mucormycosis in solid organ transplant receiver show the necessity to find new therapeutic approaches. Posaconazole associated with liposomal amphotericin B could be an interesting option to treat disseminated mucormycosis and improve their outcome.

Non-conform diagnostic management of pulmonary embolism suspected patients is responsible for a higher risk of thrombotic event occurrence.

The aim of this 3-month follow-up prospective pragmatic study was to evaluate the implementation of a pulmonary embolism (PE) diagnostic strategy in clinical practice. One thousand and one hundred thirty-four consecutive in- and outpatients with clinically suspected PE were enrolled into a sequential diagnostic algorithm in which vascular medical unit plays a pivotal role in advising physicians and suggesting the most appropriate tests according to the diagnostic algorithm. In this observational study, patients that followed the proposed work-up were attributed to a so-called "conform group". Patients in whom diagnostic work-up was not according to protocol were attributed to a "non-conform group". Nine hundred and ninety-seven patients (87.9%) had a conform work-up, and 137 patients a non-conform work-up according to the proposed diagnostic algorithm. The non-conform work-up directly increased in relation to the age of the referred patients. PE was ruled out in 907 (80%) patients of whom 787 (86.8%) were in the conform group. Of the 797 patients who did not receive anticoagulant drugs, follow-up was obtained in 792 (99.4%). Among these patients, the incidence of acute thromboembolic events during the 3-month follow-up period was different in the group of patients that had a conform work-up (1%, [95% CI, 0.5-2.1%]) from the non-conform group patients (4.5%, [95% CI, 2-10.2%]. Therefore patients from the non-conform group have an independent increased risk to develop a thromboembolic event during the follow-up, adjusted odds ratio 3.3 [1.1-10, 95% CI]. Therefore we demonstrated that a non-conform diagnostic management strategy is associated with a higher risk of thrombotic event occurrence.

[Cardiogenic shock due to acute myocarditis complicating leptospirosis]. / Choc cardiogénique par myocardite aiguë révélant une leptospirose.

A 48 year old man was admitted to the intensive care unit with septicaemic shock associated with febrile jaundice and anuric renal failure. Within hours, he developed cardiogenic shock with multi-organ failure due to an acute myocarditis refractory to catecholamines and requiring intra-aortic balloon pumping. The diagnosis was an ictero-haemorrhagic leptospirosis, the outcome of which was finally favourable. Myocarditis is an underestimated complication of leptospirosis because it is often symptomless. The main signs are arrhythmias, conduction defects and ST-T wave abnormalities which have little clinical expression. The disease may progress and is sometimes fatal. Leptospirosis myocarditis should therefore be carefully considered because of its potential severity and its reversibility with appropriate antibiotic therapy and also the necessity of initial management in a specific infrastructure.

Hospital-wide prospective mandatory surveillance of invasive aspergillosis in a French teaching hospital (2000-2002).

A multidisciplinary working group devoted to epidemiological surveillance of invasive aspergillosis (IA) was created in January 2000 in Grenoble University Hospital. This article presents the results of a three-year IA surveillance. The multidisciplinary working group surveyed all hospitalized patients, and the mycology laboratory detected most suspected IA cases. Cases were reviewed monthly by the Aspergillosis Committee, and were classified according to international consensus criteria. Possible nosocomial acquisition was determined. Among the 490 alerts, 74 IA cases were observed: six proven cases (8%), 36 (49%) probable cases and 32 (43%) possible cases. The incidence was 4.4 (95% CI 3.4-5.4) IA/100 000 patient-days. Among the proven and probable IA cases, we observed 10 nosocomial cases and six cases of undetermined origin. No cases were noted in the protected rooms in the haematology unit. Only one cluster of cases (three nosocomial cases) was detected in the haematology unit. Forty-three percent of cases (N=32) were hospitalized in the haematology unit, and all other cases were hospitalized elsewhere. This three-year survey found a high rate of non-nosocomial IA cases and a high frequency of IA cases hospitalized in units other than haematology. Thus, this study shows the importance of IA surveillance in haematology units and all high-risk units.