Nephrol Dial Transplant (2001) 16: 2348-2356
© 2001 European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association
Candidaemia in patients with dialysis-dependent acute renal failure: aetiology, predisposing and prognostic factors
Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan
Background. Infections remain the major cause of death among patients with acute renal failure (ARF), especially in severe ARF necessitating dialysis therapy (ARFd). Although the clinical features and outcomes of candidaemia in various patient populations have been described, data concerning candidaemic episodes among patients with ARFd are scarce. This study investigated the aetiology, predisposing, and prognostic factors for candidaemia in the ARFd patient population. Three patient groups were investigated in this study.
Methods. During an 8-year study period from January 1992 to December 1999, 37 candidaemic episodes that developed among 653 ARFd patients were assigned to ARFd candidaemic group, and 170 candidaemic episodes developing in patients without ARFd or chronic uraemia as the non-ARFd candidaemic group, and 28 matched ARFd patients without candidaemia were assigned to the ARFd control group. Among these groups, clinical characteristics in ARFd candidaemia patients, predisposing factors, and outcomes were compared. Four management strategies including central catheter removal, anti-fungal therapy, both, or neither were applied. The prognostic factors for attributable death were evaluated by univariate analysis followed by the multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results. The proportion of ARFd patients with candidaemia was significantly higher than in patients who had no ARFd or chronic uraemia (5.7% vs 0.15%, P<0.001). Compared with the non-ARFd candidaemic group, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), administration of corticosteroid, and central venous catheter-associated candidaemia were more common in the ARFd candidaemic group (P<0.05). In matched case-control study, multiple antibiotic usage was shown to be a predisposing factor for developing candidaemia in patients with ARFd, and corticosteroid therapy has a marginal significance (P=0.059). The occurrence of candidaemia increased the mortality rate of ARFd (71% vs 39.2% in ARFd control group, P<0.05). By multivariate logistic analysis, the variables associated with attributable death in ARFd candidaemic group were identified to be an APACHE II score of 
18, and anti-fungal therapy for >48 h. Central venous catheters were removed in 32 (86.5%) of the 37 ARFd candidaemic patients, among whom the 18 patients who had received anti-fungal therapy for >48 h had a lower attributable death rate than those patients who had not (27.8% vs 64.3%, P<0.05). Of the remaining five patients who did not have their catheter removed, three patients subsequently died and two patients improved only after catheter removal.
Conclusions. The higher prevalence of candidaemia in ARFd patients is due to their underlying illnesses and multiplicity of predisposing factors, rather than ARF and dialysis therapy per se. Predisposing factors include SLE, indwelling central venous catheter, multiple antibiotic usage, and corticosteroid therapy. Prompt anti-fungal therapy and catheter removal should be mandatory for ARFd patients with candidaemia.
Keywords: acute renal failure; anti-fungal therapy; candidaemia; corticosteroids; dialysis
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Jeng-Jong Huang, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, 138 Shing-Li Rd., Tainan 70428, Taiwan, R.O.C. Email: jjhuang{at}mail.ncku.edu.tw