Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2003 Jul 1;98(1):86-93.
doi: 10.1002/cncr.11478.

Infections in patients with aplastic anemia: experience at a tertiary care cancer center

Harrys A Torres  1 , Gerald P Bodey, Kenneth V I Rolston, Hagop M Kantarjian, Issam I Raad, Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis
Affiliations
Free article

Infections in patients with aplastic anemia: experience at a tertiary care cancer center

Harrys A Torres et al. Cancer. .
Free article

Abstract

Background: Infection is a significant cause of death in patients with aplastic anemia (AA). However, few recent studies have examined infectious complications in patients with AA.

Methods: The authors retrospectively evaluated the type of infections, associated pathogens, and outcome of infectious episodes (IEs) in patients with AA who were treated at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center between July 1994 and June 2000.

Results: Fifty-two patients with a median age of 37 years (range, 3-83 years) were identified. Overall, 104 IEs were documented in 42 patients (81%). The most common microbiologically documented infections were bacteremias (38%) followed by pneumonias (16%). Most patients (55%) had bacterial infections, mainly caused by gram-positive cocci. Multidrug-resistant, gram-negative bacilli also were not uncommon in this patient population. Five of 12 patients who died during the study period died of infection. All of these patients had invasive fungal infections, mostly due to molds. All five patients had prolonged and severe neutropenia.

Conclusions: Infections remain a major cause of death in patients with AA. Bacterial infections, especially those caused by gram-positive cocci, constitute the main cause of IE. Invasive mold infections, however, are the major cause of death in this patient population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources