Coccidioidomycosis After Solid Organ Transplantation: A Population-Based Study

BACKGROUND: Coccidioidomycosis is an invasive fungal infection in solid organ transplantation (SOT) recipients with an incidence of 1.4–6.9% in endemic regions. There are no population-level data describing the incidence and outcomes of coccidioidomycosis in SOT recipients. METHODS: We assembled a large cohort of adult SOT recipients using ICD-9-CM billing data from the California State Inpatient Databases from 2004 to 2011. Demographics, comorbidities, coccidioidomycosis coded during hospitalization and inpatient death were identified. We used Cox proportional hazard multivariate analyses to identify risk factors for coccidioidomycosis and death. RESULTS: 20,602 SOT recipients were identified during the study period (median follow-up time = 1507 days). Eighty-seven patients (0.42%) with coccidioidomycosis were identified of whom 17 (20%) were coded with progressive/disseminated disease. Median time to diagnosis was 164 days (IQR 16–844) from transplantation. Fifty-one of 87 (58%) of these infections were diagnosed within the first year posttransplant and 29/87 (33.3%) were identified within the first month. Twenty-one of 87 (24%) of patients with coccidioidomycosis died compared with 1928/18587 (9.4%) of patients without coccidioidomycosis (P < 0.001). Coccidioidomycosis was independently associated with death (HR, 3.1; 95% CI, 2.0–4.4), after adjusting for age, type of transplantation, transplant failure/rejection, and other comorbidities (Table) (Figure). CONCLUSION: Coccidioidomycosis resulting in hospitalization is rare in an endemic region in the current era of screening and prophylactic antifungal therapy. Preventing infection in solid organ transplant recipients is imperative because overall mortality remains high. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.