Table 1. Baseline characteristics of patients enrolled, by country (N = 630).
| Factors1 | United Kingdom N = 549 | Vietnam/Nepal N = 81 | p-value |
| MRSA bacteremia | 116 (21%) | 15 (19%) | 0.62 |
| Male gender | 355 (65%) | 58 (72%) | 0.23 |
| Age at positive culture (years) Median (IQR) | 63.7 (46.9–77.3) | 35.6 (27.0–54.1) | <0.001 |
| <40 years | 91 (17%) | 48 (59%) | <0.001 |
| 40–59 years | 146 (27%) | 16 (20%) | |
| 60–79 years | 198 (37%) | 15 (19%) | |
| ≥80 years | 104 (19%) | 2 (2%) | |
| Intravenous drug use | 54 (10%) | 21 (26%) | <0.001 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 111 (21%) | 11 (14%) | 0.11 |
| Immune suppression2 | 236 (47%) | 30 (38%) | 0.15 |
| Days from admission to positive blood culture: | |||
| Before/same day | 269 (50%)3 | 29 (36%) | 0.004 |
| 1–2 days after | 92 (17%) | 19 (23%) | |
| 3–6 days after | 48 (9%) | 23 (28%) | |
| 7–13 days after | 55 (10%) | 5 (5%) | |
| ≥14 days after | 78 (14%) | 5 (6%) | |
| Duration of symptoms before positive blood culture: | |||
| ≤24 hours | 209 (48%) | 1 (1%) | <0.001 |
| >24–72 hours | 125 (29%) | 12 (17%) | |
| >72 hours | 101 (23%) | 58 (82%) | |
| Focus of infection:4 | |||
| Intra-venous catheter alone | 113 (21%) | 3 (4%) | <0.001 |
| Other source of infection, and removable5 | 110 (20%) | 6 (8%) | |
| Not removable6 | 213 (40%) | 38 (48%) | |
| Not established | 101 (19%) | 33 (41%) | |
| Whether site was infected:7 | |||
| Central venous catheter | 116 (22%) | 3 (4%) | <0.001 |
| Peripheral line | 37 (7%) | 2 (2%) | 0.12 |
| Implanted vascular device | 10 (2%) | 0 (0%) | 0.37 |
| Native heart valve | 18 (4%) | 12 (15%) | <0.001 |
| Prosthetic heart valve | 3 (1%) | 1 (1%) | 0.43 |
| Native joint | 26 (5%) | 4 (5%) | 0.99 |
| Prosthetic joint | 10 (2%) | 0 (0%) | 0.37 |
| Vertebral bone | 15 (3%) | 2 (3%) | 0.99 |
| Other bone | 17 (3%) | 1 (1%) | 0.49 |
| Soft tissue | 175 (34%) | 24 (30%) | 0.47 |
| Thrombophlebitis | 29 (6%) | 1 (1%) | 0.16 |
Values in parentheses are percentages of total with information available, unless otherwise stated. Column percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding. Number of patients with missing data: susceptibility to methicillin (10), gender (1), age at positive culture (10), IV drug use (24), diabetes (31), immune suppression (51), days from admission to positive blood culture (7), duration of symptoms before positive blood culture taken (124).
Defined as any intrinsic (e.g. malignancy, chronic liver or kidney failure) or extrinsic (e.g. drugs) factor which might attenuate immune response as judged by the treating physician.
15 patients had date of positive blood culture before date of admission.
Excludes 11 patients without any information available on foci of infection, and 2 patients with foci of infection given (prosthetic heart valve and prosthetic joint) but not known if considered removable.
Whether or not the focus was removable was judged on a case-by-case basis by the attending physician. There was no study-wide definition.
3 patients had intra-venous catheter related infection which, in the individual clinical circumstances, were not considered removable.
Information was sought on whether individual sites were infected. The proportion of patients with a given site infected was based on those with information available. Patients could have more than one site infected.