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BACKGROUND Several severity indexes have been reported for critically ill patients. The Pitt bacteremia score (PBS) is commonly used to predict the risk of mortality in patients with bacteraemia. OBJECTIVES To develop a scoring system for predicting mortality in candidaemia patients. METHODS Medical records at five Japanese tertiary hospitals were reviewed. Factors associated with mortality were analysed using logistic regression modelling. The discriminatory power of scoring models was evaluated by assessing the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI). RESULTS In total, 422 candidaemia patients were included. Higher PBS, dialysis and retainment of central venous catheter were independent risk factors for all-cause 30-day mortality. However, among the five PBS components, fever was not associated with mortality; therefore, we developed a modified version of the PBS (mPBS) by replacing fever with dialysis. AUC for PBS and mPBS were 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68-0.80) and 0.76 (95% CI: 0.71-0.82), respectively. The increase in predictive ability of mPBS for 30-day mortality was statistically significant as assessed by NRI (0.24, 95% CI: 0.01-0.46, p = .04) and IRI (0.04, 95% CI: 0.02-0.06, p = .0008). When patients were stratified by mPBS into low (scores 0-3), moderate (4-7) and high risk (≥8), there were significant differences among the survival curves (p

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) and Japanese spotted fever (JSF; a spotted fever group rickettsiosis) are tick-borne zoonoses that are becoming a significant public health threat in Japan and East Asia. Strategies for treatment and infection control differ between the two; therefore, initial differential diagnosis is important. We aimed to compare the clinical characteristics of SFTS and JSF based on symptomology, physical examination, laboratory data, and radiography findings at admission. This retrospective study included patients with SFTS and JSF treated at five hospitals in Nagasaki Prefecture, western Japan, between 2013 and 2020. Data from 23 patients with SFTS and 38 patients with JSF were examined for differentiating factors and were divided by 7:3 into a training cohort and a validation cohort. Decision tree analysis revealed leukopenia (white blood cell [WBC] < 4000/µL) and altered mental status as the best differentiating factors (AUC 1.000) with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Using only physical examination factors, absence of skin rash and altered mental status resulted in the best differentiating factors with AUC 0.871, 71.4% sensitivity, and 90.0% specificity. When treating patients with suspected tick-borne infection, WBC < 4000/µL, absence of skin rash, and altered mental status are very useful to differentiate SFTS from JSF., Viruses, 14(8), art. no. 1807; 2022

Background The incidence of ocular candidiasis (OC) in patients with candidemia varies across different reports, and the issue of whether routine ophthalmoscopy improves outcomes has been raised. This study investigated the incidence of OC and evaluate whether the extent of OC impacts the clinical outcomes. Methods This retrospective study included non-neutropenic patients with candidemia who underwent treatment at one of 15 medical centers between 2010 and 2016. Chorioretinitis without other possible causes for the ocular lesions and endophthalmitis was classified as a probable OC. If signs of chorioretinitis were observed in patients with a systemic disease that causes similar ocular lesions, they were classified as a possible OC. Results In total, 781 of 1089 patients with candidemia underwent an ophthalmic examination. The prevalence of OC was 19.5%. The time from the collection of a positive blood culture to the initial ophthalmic examination was 5.0 ± 3.9 days in patients with OC. The leading isolate was Candida albicans (77.9%). Possible OC was associated with unsuccessful treatments (resolution of ocular findings) (odds ratio: 0.354, 95% confidence interval: 0.141-0.887), indicating an overdiagnosis in patients with a possible OC. If these patients were excluded, the incidence fell to 12.8%. Endophthalmitis and/or macular involvement, both of which require aggressive therapy, were detected in 43.1% of patients; a significantly higher incidence of visual symptoms was observed in these patients. Conclusion Even when early routine ophthalmic examinations were performed, a high incidence of advanced ocular lesions was observed. These results suggest that routine ophthalmic examinations are still warranted in patients with candidemia.