Twenty-two of the 76 patients (28.9%) died in the hospital
or were discharged home to hospice care and died within a
few days. Bivariate analysis identified several patient characteristics
associated with in-hospital mortality, including
unknown source of bacteremia, lack of echocardiography
evaluation, acute renal insufficiency, and high Charlson
WIC (Table 3). By 6 months after initial presentation, an
additional 21 patients died, so least 43 of 76 patients
(56.6%) died; eight patients were lost to follow-up.
Unknown cause of infection remained independently
associated with in-hospital mortality based on multivariate
analysis, (adjusted OR53.7, P5.05) (Table 3). Patients
with unknown cause of infection had a shorter duration of
bacteremia than patients with an identifiable source
(1.4 0.8 days vs 4.1 6.0 days, P5.05). Of the 19 patients
with unknown cause of BSI, 11 died in the hospital or
within a few days of being discharged to hospice care. Another
three patients died between discharge and 6 months;
only five (26.3%) remained alive at 6 months