Using Japanese big data to investigate novel factors and their high-risk combinations that affect vancomycin-induced...

Several factors related to vancomycin-induced nephrotoxicity (VIN) have not yet been clarified. In the present study, we used Japanese big data to investigate novel factors and their high-risk combinations that influence VIN.

We employed a large Japanese electronic medical record database and included patients who had been administered intravenous vancomycin between June 2000 and December 2020. VIN was defined as an increase in serum creatinine ≥0.5 mg/dL or 1.5-fold higher than the baseline. The outcomes were: (1) factors affecting VIN that were identified using multiple logistic regression analysis, and (2) combinations of factors that affect the risk of VIN according to a decision tree analysis, which is a typical machine learning method.

Of the 7306 patients that were enrolled, VIN occurred in 14.2% of them (1035). A multivariate analysis extracted 22 variables as independent factors. Concomitant ramelteon use (odds ratio 0.701, 95% confidence interval 0.512-0.959), ward pharmacy service (0.741, 0.638-0.861), duration of VCM < 7 days (0.748, 0.623-0.899) and trough concentrations 10-15 mg/L (0.668, 0.556-0.802) reduce the risk of VIN. Meanwhile, concomitant piperacillin-tazobactam use (2.056, 1.754-2.409) and piperacillin use (2.868, 1.298-6.338) increase the risk. The decision tree analysis showed that a combination of vancomycin trough concentrations ≥20 mg/L and concomitant piperacillin-tazobactam use was associated with the highest risk.

We revealed that the concomitant ramelteon use and ward pharmacy service may decrease the risk of VIN, while the concomitant use of not only piperacillin-tazobactam but also piperacillin may increase the risk.