title: Early antifungal intervention strategies in ICU patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite progress in the understanding of the pathophysiology of invasive candidiasis, and the development of new classes of well tolerated antifungals, invasive candidiasis remains a disease difficult to diagnose, and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Early antifungal treatment may be useful in selected groups of patients who remain difficult to identify prospectively. The purpose of this review is to summarize the recent development of risk-identification strategies targeting early identification of ICU patients susceptible to benefit from preemptive or empirical antifungal treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Combinations of different risk factors are useful in identifying high-risk patients. Among the many risk factors predisposing to invasive candidiasis, colonization has been identified as one of the most important. In contrast to prospective surveillance of the dynamics of colonization (colonization index), integration of clinical colonization status in risk scores models significantly improve their accuracy in identifying patients at risk of invasive candidiasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To date, despite limited prospective validation, clinical models targeted at early identification of patients at risk to develop invasive candidiasis represent a major advance in the management of patients at risk of invasive candidiasis. Moreover, large clinical studies using such risk scores or predictive rules are underway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care Medicine and Burn Center, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eggimann
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ostrosky-Zeichner
mesh_terms: D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D058365:Candidiasis, Invasive / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D010361:Patients
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents