The association of hyperglycemia with the development of infectious complications in adult Filipino patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Introduction: Hyperglycemia occurs in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) due to chemo-therapeutic agents and may be stress-induced. Given the potential impact of hyperglyce-mia on the clinical outcomes of ALL patients, we sought to determine the association of hyperglycemia with the development of infectious complications.Methods: This is a retrospective cohort involving adult Filipino ALL patients admitted at a tertiary referral center. Patients were stratified according to blood glucose levels and infec-tions were classified into microbiologically and clinically defined infections. Logistic regres-sion was performed to determine whether hyperglycemia was associated with the development of infectious complications.Results: Of the 174 patients admitted for ALL, only 76 patients (44%) underwent blood glu-cose monitoring and were thus included in this study. Hyperglycemia was observed in 64 patients (84.21%). Infectious complications were seen in 56 patients (73.68%), of whom 37 patients (48.68%) had microbiologically defined infections and 19 (25%) had clinically defined infections. The respiratory tract was the most common site of infection and gram -negative bacteria were the predominant isolates. Hyperglycemia significantly increased the likelihood of infectious complications, particularly at blood glucose levels & GE; 200 mg/dL.Conclusion: Hyperglycemia is associated with an increased likelihood of infectious compli-cations in Filipino ALL patients. With sepsis being one of the main causes of mortality in this population, our study provides compelling evidence for us to consider routine blood glucose monitoring in order to manage and potentially decrease the occurrence of infec-tions in these patients.& COPY; 2021 Associacao Brasileira de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Terapia Celular. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).