Fabián Herrera, Diego Torres, Ana Laborde, Lorena Berruezo, Rosana Jordán, Inés Roccia Rossi, Alejandra Valledor, Patricia Costantini, Miguel Dictar, Andrea Nenna, María Laura Pereyra, Sandra Lambert, José Benso, Fernando Poletta, María Luz Gonzalez Ibañez, Nadia Baldoni, María José Eusebio, Fiorella Lovano, Laura Barcán, Martín Luck, Agustina Racioppi, Lucas Tula, Fernando Pasterán, Alejandra Corso, Melina Rapoport, Federico Nicola, María Cristina García Damiano, Ruth Carbone, Renata Monge, Mariana Reynaldi, Graciela Greco, Marcelo Bronzi, Sandra Valle, María Laura Chaves, Viviana Vilches, Miriam Blanco, and Alberto Ángel Carena
Identifying the risk factors for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) bacteremia in cancer and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients would allow earlier initiation of an appropriate empirical antibiotic treatment. This is a prospective multicenter observational study in patients from 12 centers in Argentina, who presented with cancer or hematopoietic stem-cell transplant and developed Enterobacterales bacteremia. A multiple logistic regression model identified risk factors for CRE bacteremia, and a score was developed according to the regression coefficient. This was validated by the bootstrap resampling technique. Four hundred and forty-three patients with Enterobacterales bacteremia were included: 59 with CRE and 384 with carbapenem-susceptible Enterobacterales (CSE). The risk factors that were identified and the points assigned to each of them were: ≥10 days of hospitalization until bacteremia: OR 4.03, 95% CI 1.88–8.66 (2 points); previous antibiotics > 7 days: OR 4.65, 95% CI 2.29–9.46 (2 points); current colonization with KPC-carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales: 33.08, 95% CI 11.74–93.25 (5 points). With a cut-off of 7 points, a sensitivity of 35.59%, specificity of 98.43%, PPV of 77.7%, and NPV of 90.9% were obtained. The overall performance of the score was satisfactory (AUROC of 0.85, 95% CI 0.80–0.91). Finally, the post-test probability of CRE occurrence in patients with none of the risk factors was 1.9%, which would virtually rule out the presence of CRE bacteremia.