Catheter-related bloodstream infection (C-RBSI) is one of the most frequent nosocomial infections. It is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Candida spp. is the third most common cause of C-RBSI after coagulase-negative staphylococci and Staphylococcus aureus and is responsible for approximately 8% of episodes. The main cause of catheter-related candidemia is the ability of some Candida strains—mainly C. albicans and C. parapsilosis—to produce biofilms. Many in vitro and in vivo models have been designed to assess the activity of antifungal drugs against Candida biofilms. Echinocandins have proven to be the most active antifungal drugs. Potential options in situations where the catheter cannot be removed include the combination of systemic and lock antifungal therapy. However, well-designed and -executed clinical trials must be performed before firm recommendations can be issued.

We compared the efficacy of three techniques--minimal time to positivity (MTTP) of blood cultures (BCs), differential time to positivity (DTTP) of BCs obtained from the catheter and peripheral veins and the number of positive BCs--in predicting catheter involvement in patients with well-demonstrated catheter-related candidaemia (C-RC) and non-catheter-related candidaemia (NC-RC).C-RC was defined as isolation of the same Candida species from blood and catheter tip culture (≥15 cfu/plate). A ROC curve was created for each quantitative variable to determine the best cut-off for predicting C-RC.A total of 108 episodes of candidaemia were included (84 adults and 24 children; 67 C-RC and 41 NC-RC). These were caused mainly by C. albicans (49.1%) and C. parapsilosis (30.6%). The MTTP was significantly shorter in adult patients with C-RC than in those with NC-RC (29.8 vs. 36.8 hours; p 0.035), although no cut-off value provided acceptable accuracy. DTTP had high sensitivity but low specificity for predicting CRC. However, C-RC episodes had a significantly greater number of positive BCs than NC-RC episodes. The optimal cut-off for predicting C-RC was at least two positive BCs out of three, with the following validity values: sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 62.5%; positive predictive value, 83.3%; negative predictive value, 100%; accuracy, 87.0%.None of the tests evaluated allow a clear-cut prediction of C-RC and the criteria accepted for bacteraemia should not be automatically extrapolated to candidaemia. We found that a low number of positive BCs with Candida had a high negative predictive value for a catheter origin.

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