Influence of chemotherapy courses on the rate of bloodstream infections during neutropenia in adult acute myeloid leukaemia.

To evaluate the effect of various chemotherapy courses on the rate of bloodstream infections (BSI) during therapy-related neutropenia, all infection episodes of adult patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) during 7 y were retrospectively analysed in a university hospital. Of the 182 infection episodes in 76 AML patients, 37% (n = 68) were BSI. The riskratio (RR) of BSI was highest after regimens containing high-dose cytarabine (2.4 with 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3-4.4) and lowest after thioguanine-containing courses (RR: 0.2, 95% CI 0.2-0.5). Chemotherapy courses per se may have an influence on the rate of BSI during neutropenia.