Biomarkers for bacteremia and severe sepsis in hematological patients with neutropenic fever: multivariate logistic regression analysis and factor analysis

Abstract

We compared biomarkers and their changes as predictors for bacteremia and severe sepsis during neutropenic fever after intensive chemotherapy in hematological patients. Serum C-reactive protein (CRP), semi-quantative procalcitonin, aminoterminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), cortisol, lactate, plasma antithrombin and fibrinogen were measured daily from day 0 to day 3/day 4 in 89 neutropenic fever episodes of 65 hematological patients. The best predictors for bacteremia and gram-negative bacteremia were procalcitonin and its change, with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals of 2.63 (1.56–4.44) and 3.20 (1.77–5.80) for bacteremia and 4.14 (2.00–8.58) and 5.04 (2.18–11.63) for gram-negative bacteremia, respectively. For severe sepsis, the best predictors were CRP and fibrinogen, with ORs of 1.94 (1.07–3.52) and 1.92 (1.05–3.54). Factor analysis provided two predictive factors: procalcitonin–NT-proBNP–antithrombin factor predicted gram-negative bacteremia and CRP–fibrinogen predicted severe sepsis. Applying a combination of markers reflecting different aspects of infection might improve the recognition of risk for complications in patients with neutropenic fever.

Keywords::

• Neutropenic fever
• bacteremia
• biomarker
• C-reactive protein
• procalcitonin
• sepsis

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