COVID‐19‐associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA): Risk factors and development of a predictive score for critically ill COVID‐19 patients

Background COVID‐19‐associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) is a major complication of critically ill COVID‐19 patients, with a high mortality rate and potentially preventable. Thus, identifying patients at high risk of CAPA would be of great interest. We intended to develop a clinical prediction score capable of stratifying patients according to the risk for CAPA at ICU admission. Methods Single centre retrospective case–control study. A case was defined as a patient diagnosed with CAPA according to 2020 ECMM/ISHAM consensus criteria. 2 controls were selected for each case among critically ill COVID‐19 patients. Results 28 CAPA patients and 56‐matched controls were included. Factors associated with CAPA included old age (68 years vs. 62, p = .033), active smoking (17.9% vs. 1.8%, p = .014), chronic respiratory diseases (48.1% vs. 26.3%, p = .043), chronic renal failure (25.0% vs. 3.6%, p = .005), chronic corticosteroid treatment (28.6% vs. 1.8%, p