C-Reactive Protein Monitoring and Clinical Presentation of Fever as Predictive Factors of Prolonged Febrile Neutropenia and Blood Culture Positivity after Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation—Single-Center Real-Life Experience

Abstract

Background: Febrile neutropenia (FN) is a medical emergency that requires urgent evalua-tion, timely administration of empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics and careful monitoring in order to optimize the patient’s outcome, especially in the setting of both allogeneic and autologous hematopoi-etic stem cell transplant (ASCT). Methods: In this real-life retrospective study, a total of 49 consecutive episodes of FN were evaluated in 40 adult patients affected by either multiple myeloma (thirty-eight) or lymphoma (eleven), following ASCT, with nine patients having fever in both of the tandem trans-plantations. Results: Febrile neutropenia occurred a median of 7 days from ASCT. Median duration of FN was 2 days, with 25% of population that had fever for at least four days. Ten patients had at least one fever spike superior to 39◦ C, while the median number of daily fever spikes was two. Twenty patients had positive blood cultures with XDR germs, namely Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae, present in seven cases. ROC analysis of peak C-reactive protein (CRP) values was conducted based on blood culture positivity and a value of 12 mg/dL resulted significant. Onset of prolonged fever with a duration greater than 3 days was associated with the presence of both a peak number of three or more daily fever spikes (p = 0.02) and a body temperature greater than 39◦ C (p = 0.04) based on odds ratio (OR). Blood culture positivity and peak CRP values greater than 12 mg/dL were also associated with prolonged fever duration, p = 0.04, and p = 0.03, respectively. The probability of blood culture positivity was also greater in association with fever greater than 39◦ C (p = 0.04). Furthermore, peak CRP values below the cut-off showed less probability of positive blood culture (p = 0.02). Conclusions: In our study, clinical characteristics of fever along with peak CRP levels were associated with a higher probability of both prolonged fever duration and positive blood culture, needing extended antibiotic therapy.