Clinical characteristics of the patients with bacteremia due to Moraxella catarrhalis in children: a case–control study

Background Invasive diseases due to Moraxella catarrhalis are rare in children, even in immunocompromised hosts. Therefore, data regarding clinical characteristics and risk factors of such patients are limited. The aim of this study is to compare the clinical characteristics of patients with bacteremia due to Moraxella catarrhalis against those with bacteremia due to Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae . Methods We performed a retrospective case–control study to compare patients younger than 18 years of age with positive blood cultures for the three pathogens between June 2008 and May 2014 at our institution. Data regarding patients’ demographics and clinical course were collected from their medical records. Three group comparisons, with M. catarrhalis as reference, were made by the Fisher’s exact test and Wilcoxon rank sum test for discrete and continuous variables, respectively. Results There were eight cases of M. catarrhalis , 110 cases of S. pneumoniae (105 patients) and 22 cases of H. influenzae . The M. catarrhalis group consisted of six females (75 %) with a mean age of 16 months. The majority of patients (7/8, 88 %) had underlying diseases; however, only one was immunocompromised. Characteristically, six patients (75 %) had medical devices including trans-nasal devices (5/8, 63 %). Univariate analysis revealed that underlying conditions ( P = 0.005), trans-nasal devices ( P < 0.001), and lower body weight ( P = 0.016) and low white blood cell count ( P = 0.011) at the onset of illness were associated with the M. catarrhalis group compared to the S. pneumoniae group. Meanwhile, the higher rates of the patients with underlying conditions and trans-nasal devices were associated with the M. catarrhalis group compared to the H. influenzae group ( P = 0.039, P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions The presence of underlying conditions, particularly in those with trans-nasal devices, were characteristic features of patients with bacteremia due to M. catarrhalis. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1408-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.