• Fengmei Guo, Yi Yang, Yan Kang, Bin Zang, Wei Cui, Bingyu Qin, Yingzhi Qin, Qiang Fang, Tiehe Qin, Dongpo Jiang, Weiqin Li, Qin Gu, Hongsheng Zhao, Dawei Liu, Xiangdong Guan, Jianguo Li, Xiaochun Ma, Kaijiang Yu, Dechang Chan, Jing Yan, Yaoqing Tang, Wei Liu, Ruoyu Li, Haibo Qiu, and China-SCAN Team.
• Nanjing Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University School of Medicine, Nanjing, China.
• J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 2013 Jul 1;68(7):1660-8.

ObjectivesTo describe the epidemiology, microbiology and management of invasive Candida infection (ICI) in intensive care units (ICUs) in China.MethodsA multicentre, prospective, observational study in 67 hospital ICUs across China. Patients were ≥18 years old with clinical signs of infection and at least one of the following diagnostic criteria: (i) histopathological, cytopathological or microscopic confirmation of yeast cells from a normally sterile site; (ii) at least one peripheral blood culture positive for Candida; and (iii) positive Candida culture from a normally sterile site. The China-SCAN study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT T01253954).ResultsICI incidence was 0.32% (306 patients/96,060 ICU admissions) and median time between ICU admission and diagnosis was 10.0 days. Candida albicans was the most prevalent single isolate (41.8% of patients), although non-albicans species accounted for the majority of infections. Diagnostic confirmation was based solely on at least one positive blood culture in 290 (94.8%) cases. Treatment was initiated after diagnostic confirmation in 166/268 (61.9%) patients. Triazoles (62.7%) and echinocandins (34.2%) were the most commonly used antifungal agents; first-line therapy was typically fluconazole (37.7%). The median duration of antifungal therapy was 14 days. The mortality rate was 36.6% (112/306); the median time between diagnosis and death was 14.5 days. Mortality was higher in older individuals, those with solid tumours, those with recent invasive mechanical ventilation and those with a higher sequential organ failure assessment score at diagnostic confirmation. Susceptibility to first-line antifungals was associated with lower mortality than dose-dependent susceptibility or complete resistance (P=0.008).ConclusionsMore infections were caused by non-albicans than Candida albicans strains. The majority of patients were treated only after diagnostic confirmation, rather than empirically. First-line antifungal susceptibility was associated with lower mortality.

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