The Spectrum of Bacterial Infection in a Large Cohort of Chinese Pediatric Patients with Inborn Errors of Immunity: A Nine-year, Retrospective, Single-center Study.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the spectrum of bacterial infections in children with inborn error of immunity (IEIs).

METHODS

Pediatric patients with IEIs and positive for bacteria considered to be pathogenic were included in this retrospective study.

RESULTS

In this study, 1811 medical records of IEI inpatients were reviewed, and 243 IEI patients with 290 hospitalizations were enrolled. A total of 361 strains were detected, of which, 83 (22.99%) were gram-positive bacteria, and 278 (77.01%) were gram-negative bacteria. The main bacteria isolated from different IEI classifications were different. Patients with combined immunodeficiencies were more likely to have Klebsiella pneumoniae (12.68%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.68%) isolated. Patients with predominant antibody deficiencies were more prone to the isolation of Haemophilus influenzae (31.82%) and Moraxella catarrhalis (13.64%). Patients with congenital defects of phagocytes were more frequently associated with the isolation of K. pneumoniae (16.84%) and Escherichia coli (11.58%). Patients with different classifications of IEI were susceptible to specific bacteria. Salmonella was often isolated from patients with defects in intrinsic and innate immunity (4.23%), and Staphylococcus aureus was often isolated from patients with combined immunodeficiencies with syndromic features (5.52%). The percentages of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, carbapenem-resistant E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii in IEI patients were55.57%, 38.10%, 25.71%, 25.81%, and 70.59%, respectively, and these values were greater than those in non-IEI patients.

CONCLUSION

Children with IEIs exhibit a unique spectrum of bacterial infections. Bacteria isolated from children with IEIs have high antimicrobial resistance.