Abstract

LONA REYES, Juan Carlos; MARIN AGUILERA, Miriam; CORDERO ZAMORA, Araceli  and  GAITAN MEZA, Jesús. Frequency of risk factors for bacteremia in children with cancer, neutropenia and fever in a tertiary level hospital in western Mexico. Bol. Med. Hosp. Infant. Mex. [online]. 2013, vol.70, n.4, pp.304-309. ISSN 1665-1146.

Background. We undertook this study to Identify risk factors (RF) for bacteremia in children with cancer, neutropenia and fever in order to establish more timely diagnoses. Methods. We conducted a cross-sectional study in regard to RF for bacteremia in pediatric patients with cancer, neutropenia and fever (CNF). We compared the prevalence of bacteremia depending on the presence or absence of independent variables and calculated the prevalence ratio (PR) with 95% confidence intervals. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify conditions that increase the likelihood of the diagnosis of bacteremia.t Results. We included 149 patients with CNF. Average age was 7.3 years; 45% were females. The underlying disease was leukemia (n =113) or solid tumors (n =36). Of the patients, 25.5% suffered from bacteremia; 65% of isolated bacteria were gram negative. Variables associated with bacteremia identified by multivariate analysis were thrombocytopenia (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.02-5.4, P 0.04), central venous catheter (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.16-5.9, P 0.02) and history of chemotherapy with vincristine (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.22-6.4, P 0.01). Conclusions. In a multivariate model, platelet count ≤50,000/mm³, central venous catheter and the use of vincristine were associated with an increased likelihood of diagnosis of bacteremia in children with CNF.

Keywords : neutropenia; bacteremia; risk factors.