Prior infections are associated with increased mortality from subsequent blood-stream infections among patients with hematological malignancies

Circulating microRNA sequencing revealed miRNome patterns in hematology and oncology patients aiding the prognosis of invasive aspergillosis

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) may occur as a serious complication of hematological malignancy. Delays in antifungal therapy can lead to an invasive disease resulting in high mortality. Currently, there are no well-established blood circulating microRNA biomarkers or laboratory tests which can be used to diagnose IA. Therefore, we aimed to define dysregulated miRNAs in hematology and oncology (HO) patients to identify biomarkers predisposing disease. We performed an in-depth analysis of high-throughput small transcriptome sequencing data obtained from the whole blood samples of our study cohort of 50 participants including 26 high-risk HO patients and 24 controls. By integrating in silico bioinformatic analyses of small noncoding RNA data, 57 miRNAs exhibiting significant expression differences (P < 0.05) were identified between IA-infected patients and non-IA HO patients. Among these, we found 36 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) irrespective of HO malignancy. Of the top ranked DEMs, we found 14 significantly deregulated miRNAs, whose expression levels were successfully quantified by qRT-PCR. MiRNA target prediction revealed the involvement of IA related miRNAs in the biological pathways of tumorigenesis, the cell cycle, the immune response, cell differentiation and apoptosis.

Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score Modified for Recent Infection in Patients With Hematologic Malignant Tumors and Severe Sepsis

BACKGROUND

Baseline health status influences outcomes of severe sepsis.

OBJECTIVE

To determine if recent infection is a marker of poor health in patients with hematologic malignant tumors and severe sepsis by modifying the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score to account for infection.

METHODS

Medical records of the first 50 patients with hematologic malignant tumors and severe sepsis admitted from September 1, 2009 to September 1, 2014, were reviewed to derive a modified SOFA score. The predictive accuracy of the modified score was compared with that of the unmodified score and the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score for the 196 subsequent patients.

RESULTS

The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve was 0.73 (95% CI, 0.66-0.80) for the modified score, 0.68 (95% CI, 0.61-0.76) for the unmodified score, and 0.65 (95% CI, 0.58-0.73) for the APACHE II score. The modified score was better for discriminating survivors from nonsurvivors than the unmodified score (P = .005) and the APACHE II score (P = .04). After adjustments for the modified score and age, only increased days from hospital to intensive care unit admission was significantly associated with 30-day mortality.

CONCLUSION

Modifying the SOFA score to account for infections before admission to the intensive care unit improved the prognostic usefulness of the scores for patients with hematologic malignant tumors and severe sepsis.