Abstract:

Objective To analyze the clinical data of 195 children with invasive pulmonary fungal infection (IPFI), and to provide help for early identification and diagnosis of IPFI in children. Methods The clinical data of 195 children with IPFI were retrospectively analysed. Results Among the 195 cases, 123 were male and 72 were female, the median age was 9.5 (0.9-62.0) months. 52 were neonates (<28 d), 79 were infants (28 d-3 years), and 64 were elder children (3-18 years). The most common diseases of newborn were premature infants (75.0%), the most common diseases of infant were immunodeficiency (20.3%), and haematological diseases were more common in elder children (31.3%). The differences in the proportions of two-combination antibiotic use, haemodialysis or dialysis, indwelling gastric tube, use of glucocorticoids, chemotherapy or other immunosuppressive treatments, and parenteral nutrition were statistically significant between different age groups (P<0.05). The main pathogen was Candida albicans (69.2%), and there were significant differences in the proportion of Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Aspergillus among different age groups (P<0.05). Candida had a high resistance to azoles and a low resistance to amphotericin B and 5-fluorocytosine. Conclusions Invasive pulmonary fungal infections in children were predominant in infants and young children, with differences in the underlying disease and invasiveness factors in different age groups, with Candida being the predominant pathogen, and the distribution of strains of the organisms may be related to age, with a high rate of resistance to azoles inCandida.

Key words: invasive pulmonary fungal infection, pathogens, child