Lab frailty score linked to death in one drug-resistant infection
Each 0.10-point higher score was linked to greater 30-day death risk, with a relative-risk measure called a hazard ratio of 1.68.
Multicenter
Limit: Acute illness severity could explain part of the link between frailty scores and death
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Researchers studied 199 hospitalized adults with confirmed carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections in a retrospective observational cohort study. These bacteria resist carbapenems, a class of antibiotics. Patients averaged 70 years old, and 38.2% were male. Records came from four infectious disease units in Apulia, Italy, covering January 2020 through August 2025.
Researchers calculated frailty scores within 48 hours of admission from the proportion of abnormal results across 30 laboratory measurements. The scale ran from 0 to 1. Deaths occurred in 12.6% of patients within seven days and 19.1% within 30 days. Higher scores remained associated with mortality after researchers accounted for age, other illnesses, illness severity, infection site, antibiotic therapy and other factors.
Why it matters
Frailty reflects accumulated decline in how the body functions, making it relevant to risk assessment beyond age alone. The authors suggested that routine laboratory tests could help clinicians identify vulnerable patients early in drug-resistant infections.
Caveats
This retrospective observational study cannot show that frailty caused deaths or that using the score would improve care. The findings concern adults hospitalized with this specific infection at four Italian units.
From the paper
- Participants
A total of 199 patients with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) infection were included across four Infectious Diseases Units in Apulia, Italy, between January 2020 and August 2025.
- Result
Each + 0.10 increase in FI-Lab was associated with higher 7-day (HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.22–1.89), 30-day (HR 1.68, 95% CI 1.36–2.08), and in-hospital (HR 1.63, 95% CI 1.32–2.01) mortality (all p < 0.01).
- Limitation
First, the retrospective design limits causal inference, and some potentially relevant clinical variables — such as nutritional status and inflammatory markers beyond standard biochemical panels — were unavailable.
Quoted word for word from the full text on link.springer.com.
- Cefiderocol
- Bloodstream infection
- Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infection
- FI-LAB
- Respiratory infections
- Humans
The paper
University of Bari Aldo Moro
European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Oct 26, 2026, Open access
