Although the widespread use of modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) has reduced the incidence of talaromycosis in people living with HIV, mortality remains as high as 20% in this population, even after appropriate antifungal treatment.
The objective of our study was to develop a risk assessment system for HIV-infected patients with comorbid talaromycosis, in order to provide these patients with appropriate, effective, and potentially life-saving interventions at an early stage of their illness.
This was a multi-center, retrospective cohort study conducted in China. We built a predictive model based on data from 11 hospitals, and a validated model using the data of 1 hospital located in an endemic area.
Forward step-wise multivariate statistical calculations indicated that age, aspartate aminotransferase/alanine transaminase ratio and albumin levels, and BUN levels were valid, independent predictors of the risk of death in HIV-infected patients with talaromycosis. Our developed and validated risk scoring system is effective for the identification of HIV-infected patients with talaromycosis at high risk of death at hospital admission (p <0.001; AUC=0.860). In our study, our risk prediction model provided functional and robust discrimination in the validation cohort (p <0.001; AUC=0.793).
The prognostic scoring system for mortality assessment developed in the present study is an easy-to-use clinical tool designed to accurately assist clinicians in identifying high-risk patients with talaromycosis.

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