Antibiotic resistance patterns of multidrug resistant bacteria in acute myeloid leukemia patients during induction treatment

Abstract

Introduction: The treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is accompanied by infectious complications, particularly during induction. The surge of multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria represents an additional problem for the health care of patients with AML. Methodology: A retrospective analysis of infectious complications was performed in 84 patients with AML undergoing induction therapy hospitalized between October 2020 and April 2023 at the Clinic of Hematology, University Clinical Centre of Serbia. Results: From 84 patients and 95 bacterial isolates, Enterococcus spp. was the most frequent Gram-positive bacterium (26%), showing a 56% resistance rate to vancomycin, and a 77.3% resistance rate to carbapenems, with a 4.3% resistance rate to linezolid and no resistance to tigecycline detected. The most common Gram-negative bacterium, Klebsiella spp. (28%), was resistant to cephalosporins, carbapenems, fluoroquinolones (88%, 84.6%, and 88.5% respectively), with a sizeable resistance rate to ceftazidime/avibactam and colistin (20% and 36.4% respectively). XDR Klebsiella spp. dominated the isolated strains, being detected in 57.7% of cultures, whereas Enterococcus spp. was identified as MDR or XDR in 40% and 28% respectively. The factors associated with developing MDR infections were ECOG PS > 2 (p = 0.024), sepsis (p = 0.0016), and the presence of two or more infectious syndromes (p = 0.016). Patients with a confirmed MDR bacterial infection had a mortality rate of 36.7%. Conclusions: Our work demonstrates that the frequency of infections in this population is high, especially with MDR and XDR strains of Klebsiella spp. and Enterococcus spp., which are accompanied by high rates of early death. Copyright © 2025 Trajković et al.