Clinical and microbiological characteristics of bloodstream infection caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae harboring rmpA in Japanese adults

We investigated the clinical features of bloodstream infections (BSIs) caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae harboring rmpA and molecular characteristics of the bacteria. We retrospectively investigated adult patients with K. pneumoniae BSI from January 2010 to March 2021 at Nagasaki University Hospital. A matched case–control study in a 1:3 ratio was conducted to clarify the clinical and bacterial characteristics of BSI caused by rmpA-positive K. pneumoniae compared with those caused by rmpA-negative isolates. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were performed for rmpA-positive isolates. The rmpA was detected in 36 (13.4%) of the 268 isolates. Of these 36 isolates, 31 (86.1%) harbored iucA and 35 (97.2%) each possessed peg-344 and iroB; capsular types were identified as K1 in 9 (25.0%) and K2 in 10 isolates (27.8%). Contrarily, of the 108 rmpA-negative isolates, which were matched for case–control studies, 5 isolates (4.6%) harbored iucA and 1 (0.9%) each possessed peg-344 and iroB; 2 (1.9%) and 3 isolates (2.8%) had K1 and K2 capsular types, respectively. Among the rmpA-positive isolates, ST23/K1 (eight isolates) was the most frequent, followed by ST412/non-K1/K2 (seven isolates), ST86/K2 (five isolates), and ST268/non-K1/K2 (four isolates). In a multivariate analysis using clinical factors, liver abscess positively correlated with rmpA-positive isolates, whereas biliary tract infection and use of anticancer drugs negatively correlated with rmpA-positive isolates in patients with K. pneumoniae BSI. Considering the correlation between rmpA-positive isolates and clinical features, rmpA can be used as a marker for understanding the pathophysiology of K. pneumoniae BSI.