Table 1.
Baseline, infection and treatment characteristics of study cohort.
| Variable Median (IQR) or No. (%) |
All Patients (n = 43) |
|---|---|
| Demographics and Admission Characteristics | |
| Age (years) | 54 (33–66) |
| Male gender | 30 (69.8) |
| Length of hospital stay | 55 (39–96) |
| Admission to ICU | 12 (27.9) |
| Total body weight (kg) | 60 (50–71) |
| Comorbidities | |
| Congestive heart failure | 4 (9.3) |
| Chronic kidney disease | 4 (9.3) |
| Diabetes mellitus | 8 (18.6) |
| Solid and haematological malignancy | 14 (32.6) |
| Age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index | 3 (0–4) |
| Infection Characteristics and Clinical Presentation | |
| Time to infection onset (days) | 10 (4–28) |
| APACHE II score at infection onset | 17 (11–22) |
| Presence of sepsis | 43 (100.0) |
| Septic shock | 38 (88.4) |
| Types of Infection | |
| Bloodstream infections | 24 (55.8) |
| Complicated intra-abdominal infections | 1 (2.3) |
| Complicated skin and soft tissue infections | 8 (18.6) |
| Complicated urinary tract infections | 3 (7.0) |
| Pneumonia | 2 (4.7) |
| Multiple infection types | 5 (11.3) |
| Types of CR-GNB (Total No. of CR-GNB = 58) a | |
| Acinetobacter spp. | 31 (53.5) |
| Enterobacteriaceae | 14 (24.1) |
| P. aeruginosa | 13 (22.4) |
| Patients with concurrent non-CR-GNB infections | 29 (67.4) |
| Characteristics of Treatment | |
| APACHE II score at time of high-dose PMB initiation | 21 (12–24) |
| Use of PMB loading dose (>25,000 IU/kg) | 6 (14.0) |
| Daily high-dose PMB dose (IU/kg) | 32 051 (29,340–34,884) |
| Duration of high-dose PMB (days) | 14 (7–28) |
| Cumulative high-dose PMB (MIU) | 24.5 (13.8–52.8) |
| Dose reduction or use of standard-dose PMB (≤25,000 IU/kg/day) prior to high-dose PMB | 22 (51.6) |
| Overall average daily PMB dose (IU/kg) b | 29 412 (28,070–33,751) |
| Overall cumulative PMB (MIU) b | 27.0 (18.4–67.5) |
| Use of combination therapy | 40 (93.0) |
| Presence of source control | 25 (58.1) |
a Ten patients had more infection due to ≥1 CR-GNB; b Values takes into account the dose reduction or use of standard dose polymyxin B prior to high-dose polymyxin B; NOTE: CR-GNB, carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria; ICU, intensive care unit; IU, international units; MIU, million international units; PMB, polymyxin B.