Risk factors for hepatosplenic abscesses in patients with acute leukemia receiving empiric azole treatment.

The authors retrospectively evaluated 63 febrile neutropenic episodes in 33 consecutive patients with leukemia who received empiric azole treatment for refractory or relapsing fever that occurred despite broad-spectrum antibiotics. In 8 patients (24%), hepatosplenic abscesses (HSA) developed. To identify the risk factors for the development of HSA, the authors compared various characteristics of febrile episodes in those with and without HSA. The risk factors included relapsed status of leukemia (P = 0.04) and Candida colonization of surveillance cultures from the throat (P = 0.03) and stool (P = 0.03). However, the duration of neutropenia, gastrointestinal symptoms, types of chemotherapy, and leukemia subtypes were not correlated with the development of HSA. Based on these results, the authors identified the high risk group for the development for HSA as patients with relapsed leukemia with fungal colonization of gastrointestinal tract during neutropenia despite empiric antifungal treatment with azoles.