Antibiotics (Sep 2020)

Preliminary Attempt to Predict Risk of Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis in Patients with Influenza: Decision Trees May Help?

  • Valeria Bellelli,
  • Guido Siccardi,
  • Livia Conte,
  • Luigi Celani,
  • Elena Congeduti,
  • Cristian Borrazzo,
  • Letizia Santinelli,
  • Giuseppe Pietro Innocenti,
  • Claudia Pinacchio,
  • Giancarlo Ceccarelli,
  • Mario Venditti,
  • Gabriella d’Ettorre

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9100644
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 10
p. 644

Abstract

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Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is typically considered a disease of immunocompromised patients, but, recently, many cases have been reported in patients without typical risk factors. The aim of our study is to develop a risk predictive model for IPA through machine learning techniques (decision trees) in patients with influenza. We conducted a retrospective observational study analyzing data regarding patients diagnosed with influenza hospitalized at the University Hospital “Umberto I” of Rome during the 2018-2019 season. We collected five IPA cases out of 77 influenza patients. Although the small sample size is a limit, the most vulnerable patients among the influenza-infected population seem to be those with evidence of lymphocytopenia and those that received corticosteroid therapy.

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