Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis real-world outcomes: Clinical features and risk factors associated with increased mortality

Abstract

Abstract Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a severe fungal infection that primarily affects immunocompromised patients and is associated with high mortality. Contemporary clinical characteristics of IPA and "real-world" estimates and predictors of associated mortality are inadequate. TriNetX, a global research network, was queried to identify adult patients with IPA diagnoses based on the ICD-10 code B44.0. We performed a propensity score-matched analysis comparing clinical characteristics among patients who survived versus non-survivors at 1 year. We identified 4371 patients with IPA. We found neoplasms, solid organ transplant recipients, hematologic malignancies, and aplastic anemia as the most predominant risk factors. The overall 1-year mortality was 32% for IPA. 1-year mortality was highest for patients with COVID-19 in the ICU, followed by those with acute myeloid leukemia and aplastic anemia (54%, 50%, and 39%, respectively). After propensity score matching, severe sepsis, pleural effusion, and candidiasis were mortality contributors within a year after diagnosis. Liver injury, systemic glucocorticoid exposure over the previous 6 months, lower lymphocyte and CD4 counts, elevated ferritin, LDH, thrombocytopenia, anemia, or elevated glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were independent predictors of mortality at 1 year. Voriconazole was the most common treatment (67%). The annual incidence of IPA was 0.001%, increasing to 0.02% among critically ill patients in the ICU. IPA continues to have a very high mortality. We encourage prospective studies to validate and refine the identified clinical markers linked to increased mortality.