This study investigated the high-risk factors associated with the increased vulnerability for subsequent clinical CR-GNB infection in carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (CR-GNB)-colonized hematological malignancy (HM) patients and built a statistical model to predict subsequent infection.
All adult HM patients with positive rectoanal swabs culture for CR-GNB between January 2018 and June 2020 were prospectively followed to assess for any subsequent CR-GNB infections and to investigate the risk factors and clinical features of subsequent infection.
A total of 392 HM patients were enrolled. Of them, 46.7% developed a subsequent clinical CR-GNB infection, with 42 (10.7%) cases of confirmed infection and 141 (36%) cases of clinically diagnosed infection.
Our risk-predictive scoring model can early and accurately predict a subsequent CR-GNB infection in HM patients with CR-GNB colonization. The early administration of CR-GNB-targeted empirical therapy in the high-risk group is strongly recommended to decrease their mortality.