Influenza patients who developed invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in the ICU tended to have their stays significantly lengthened from 9 days (interquartile range, 5-20 days) for those without it to 19 days (IQR, 12-38 days) for those infected (P less than .0001). Likewise, 90-day mortality significantly rose from 28% for those influenza patients without invasive pulmonary aspergillosis to 51% for those with it (P = .0001).
The authors concluded that influenza was “independently associated with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (adjusted odds ratio, 5.19; P less than.0001) along with a higher APACHE II score, male sex, and use of corticosteroids.”
Furthermore, as influenza appears to be an independent risk factor for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and its associated high mortality, the authors suggested that “future studies should assess whether a faster diagnosis or antifungal prophylaxis could improve the outcome of influenza-associated aspergillosis.”
The authors reported that they had no conflicts of interest.
SOURCE: Schauwvlieghe AFAD et al. Lancet Respir Med. 2018 Jul 31. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(18)30274-1