[Epidemiology of febrile neutropenia in patients with hematological disease-a prospective multicentre survey in China].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence, clinical and microbiological features of febrile, and risk factors during neutropenia periods in patients with hematological diseases.
METHODS: From October 20, 2014 to March 20, 2015, consecutive patients who had hematological diseases and developed neutropenia during hospitalization were enrolled in the prospective, multicenter and observational study.
RESULTS: A total of 784 episodes of febrile occurred in 1 139 neutropenic patients with hematological diseases. The cumulative incidence of febrile was 81.9% at 21 days after neutropenia. Multivariate analysis suggested that central venous catheterization (P<0.001, HR=3.407, 95% CI 2.276-4.496), gastrointestinal mucositis (P<0.001, HR=10.548, 95% CI 3.245-28.576), previous exposure to broad-spectrum antibiotics within 90 days (P<0.001, HR=3.582, 95% CI 2.387-5.770) and duration of neutropenia >7 days (P<0.001,HR=4.194, 95% CI 2.572-5.618) were correlated with higher incidence of febrile during neutropenia. With the increase of the risk factors, the incidence of febrile increased gradually (35.4%, 69.2%, 86.1%, 95.6%, P<0.001). Of 784 febrile cases, 253 (32.3%) were unknown origin, 429 (54.7% )of clinical documented infections and 102(13.0%) of microbiological documented infections. The most common sites of infection were pulmonary (49.5%), upper respiratory (16.0%), crissum (9.8%), blood stream (7.7%). The most common pathogens were gram-negative bacteria (44.54%), followed by gram-positive bacteria (37.99% ) and fungi (17.47% ). There was no significant difference in mortality rates between cases with febrile and cases without febrile (9.2% vs 4.8%, P=0.099). Multivariate analysis also suggested that >40 years old (P=0.047, HR=5.000, 95% CI 0.853-28.013), hemodynamic instability (P=0.001, HR=13.185, 95% CI 2.983-54.915), prior colonization or infection by resistant pathogens (P=0.005, HR=28.734, 95% CI 2.921-313.744), blood stream infection (P=0.038, HR=9.715, 95% CI 1.110-81.969) and pulmonary infection (P=0.031, HR=25.905, 95% CI 1.381-507.006) were correlated with higher mortality rate in cases with febrile.
CONCLUSIONS: Febrile was the common complication during neutropenia periods in patients with hematological disease. There was different distribution of organisms in different sites of infection. Moreove, the duration of neutropenia >7 days, central venous catheterization, gastrointestinal mucositis and previous exposure to broad-spectrum antibiotics within 90 days were the risk factors for the higher incidence of febrile.