SAN DIEGO – The long-term use of ceftaroline is associated with neutropenia, results from a single-center retrospective study showed.
A fifth-generation cephalosporin antibiotic with activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, ceftaroline is approved for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia and skin and skin structure infections. It’s also an option for treating orthopedic and endovascular infections when primary therapy fails or is contraindicated, according to one of the study authors, Dr. Hollis R. O’Neal Jr. “There are small case reports of associations between ceftaroline use and neutropenia, and we were noticing that many patients in our clinical practice were developing neutropenia,” Dr. O’Neal, a pulmonologist at Louisiana State University Health Baton Rouge, said in an interview at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Doug Brunk/Frontline Medical News
Dr. Hollis R. O'Neal Jr.
In an effort to determine the incidence, severity, and outcome of neutropenia in patients receiving long-term ceftaroline therapy, Dr. O’Neal and his associates retrospectively evaluated 38 patients who received at least 7 days of ceftaroline initiated at LSU Health Baton Rouge between June 2012 and December 2014. They defined clinically significant neutropenia as having an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) below 2500 cells/mm3 and gathered pertinent data from medical records including comorbidities, chronic medications, and diagnoses.
The median age of the 38 patients was 47 years and their median body mass index was 28 kg/m2. Of the 38 patients, 10 (26%) developed neutropenia. “That was surprising to me,” Dr. O’Neal said. “I thought we would find three or four cases.” Compared with those who were nonneutropenic, those who developed neutropenia tended to be younger (a median of 44 years vs. 51 years), have a lower body mass index (a median of 25 kg/m2 vs. 32 kg/m2), and be more likely to have a longer duration of ceftaroline therapy (a median of 36 days vs. 26 days).
Of the 10 neutropenic patients, 7 had an ANC below 1,500 cells/mm3, and 4 had an ANC below 500 cells/mm3. The median time to first neutropenic day was day 21, with a median nadir of 1,156 cells/mm3. One hospitalization occurred that was believed to be due to neutropenia, but all 30 patients were alive at least 30 days after completing ceftaroline therapy.
“Once the ANC falls below 2,500 cells/mm3, the risk of developing true neutropenia is high,” Dr. O’Neal said. “So what we’re doing is monitoring ANC levels weekly. When they fall below 2,500 we monitor [ANC levels] twice weekly. When they reach 1,500 we stop the drug. So it’s really changed how we monitor the drug’s use.”
The study’s lead author is Dr. Katherine W. Lavie, an infectious diseases fellow at LSU Health Baton Rouge. The researchers reported having no financial disclosures.