Table 1.

Demographics and clinical characteristics of the study cohort

Variables	IPA (n=54)	Controls (n=50)	P value
Age, mean±SD	63.6±12.6	60.9±13.1	0.26
Man, no (%)	34 (63)	35 (70)	0.53
Underlying disease, no (%)*
Acute leukaemia	16 (29.6)	14 (28)	0.08
Allogeneic HSCT	10 (18.5)	16 (32)
Chronic lymphoproliferative diseases	8 (14.8)	10 (20)
SOT	5 (9.3)	4 (8)
Influenza A (H1N1)	8 (14.8)	0 (0)
Solid tumours	2 (3.7)	4 (8)
Liver cirrhosis	3 (5.6)	2 (4)
COPD	2 (3.7)	0 (0)
ICU admission	28 (51.9)	12 (24)	0.009
Mechanical ventilation	18 (33.3)	5 (10)	0.005
Severe neutropenia, no (%)†	20 (37)	11 (22)	0.13
BAL cell counts, mean (range)‡
Neutrophils	4.9 (0–30.3)	4.0 (0–24.6)	0.28
Lymphocytes	4.0 (0–175.7)	1.3 (0.1–17.4)	0.004
CMV IgG serostatus
Positive	18 (33.3)	20 (40)	0.80
Negative	14 (25.9)	12 (24)
Unknown	22 (40.7)	18 (36)
Immunosuppression, no (%)
Steroids	25 (46.3)	14 (28)	0.06
Other immunosuppressive regimens	4 (7.4)	10 (20)
None	25 (46.3)	26 (52)
Antibiotherapy, no (%)
β-lactams§	50 (92.6)	33 (66)	0.003
Other antibiotics	2 (3.7)	8 (16)
None	2 (3.7)	9 (18)

P values were calculated by Fisher’s exact probability t-test for categorical variables or by Student’s t-test or Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables.

*SOT included lung, heart, kidney and liver transplants. Solid tumours included patients with lung, breast and liver cancer.

†Severe neutropenia was defined as ≤0.5×10⁹ cells/L.

‡Cell counts in BAL were expressed as the number ×10³ cells/µL.

§Carbapenems and piperacillin–tazobactam were included in the β-lactams category.

BAL, bronchoalveolar lavage; CMV, cytomegalovirus; COPD, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease; HSCT, haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation; ICU, intensive care unit; IPA, invasive pulmonary aspergillosis; SOT, solid organ transplantation.