Evaluation of Candida Scoring Systems to Predict Early Candidemia: A Prospective and Observational Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital, Uttarakhand.

BACKGROUND: Candidemia in critically ill patients is usually a severe and life-threatening condition. Furthermore, due to its nonspecific presentation, it is difficult to diagnose leading to delayed treatment, prolonged hospitalization, and increased health-care costs with increase in morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES: In view of lack of data on "Candida scoring systems," this study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of these scoring systems in predicting the development of candidemia among the Intensive Care Unit patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The "Candida score" was calculated at the onset of systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, or shock. Various scoring systems were compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. RESULTS: Among all three bedside risk scoring systems to predict candidemia both Leon score and Wenzel score offered significant discrimination between candidemic and noncandidemic patients with P = 0.000 and 0.001, respectively. The area under the curve for the scoring systems was 0.946 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.89-1) and 0.818 (95% CI = 0.687-0.949). CONCLUSION: Leon scoring system was found to have highest specificity, diagnostic accuracy, and positive likelihood ratio among all. Thus, we might conclude that a Leon score of ≥2.5 was most suitable for diagnosis of candidemia with significant accuracy and shortening of turnaround time when compared to the gold standard of blood culture. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the subject.

Fatal Case of Pericardial Effusion Due to Myroides Odoratus: A Rare Case Report.

Myroides spp., previously known as Flavobacterium odoratum, are rare clinical isolates and are often considered non-pathogenic. Natural habitat includes soil, fresh and marine waters, in foods and in sewage treatment plants. We present an unusual case of fatal pericardial effusion due to Myroides odoratus in a patient suffering from chronic kidney disease and undergoing maintenance haemodialysis. This case is presented to show the increasing incidence of rare isolates causing localized and systemic infections and due to their high intrinsic resistance to many antibiotics they can be fatal. Thus isolation of these pathogens is of great clinical importance.