Epidemiology, management and outcome of candidaemia in patients with diabetes.

Background: Candidaemia is the commonest fungal bloodstream infection in hospitalised patients. Diabetes is one of the risk factors for mortality from candidaemia.

Methods: We compared the epidemiology, clinical characteristics and management of candidaemia in patients with and without diabetes.

Results: Over a 10-year period, 200 episodes of Candida bloodstream infection were documented. Patients with diabetes were younger (58.7 vs 65.5 years), less likely to be suffering from cancer (21.8% vs 36%), and had significantly lower 30-day and 90-day crude mortality (17.2% vs 35.6% and 28.4% vs 48.6%, respectively). was more common in patients with diabetes (39.3% vs 29.7%). Based on European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) quality indicators, the management of patients with and without diabetes was similar.

Discussion: Our study highlights the importance of epidemiological data in relation to candidaemia in patients with diabetes and the growing threat of invasive infection in this subset of patients.