States than elsewhere; or investigator access to patients with HCAP varying by country. It seems clear that empiric antibiotics for HCAP in the United States should cover MDR pathogens. Given the possible differences in HCAP incidence across geographic regions, we would be hesitant to assume that the microbiology, and hence recommended treatments, should not also vary with location.Conclusions In summary, we compared important demographic characteristics and associated pathogens among patients with HCAP, HAP, or VAP recruited into a large, international pneumonia study. HCAP patients were older and had more comorbidities, higher APACHE II scores, and comparable short-term mortality compared with patients with HAP or VAP. The prevalence of potentially MDR organisms, particularly gram-negatives, was similar across groups, lending support to the recommendation that initial empiric antibiotic therapy should be similar in all groups and should include agents with activity against these pathogens.AEBSF hydrochloride Additional fileAdditional file 1: Figure S1. Ethics Committees or Institutional Review Boards by Investigator.Abbreviations APACHE: Acute physiology and chronic health evaluation; ATS: American Thoracic Society; HAP: Hospital-acquired pneumonia; HCAP: Healthcareassociated pneumonia; IDSA: Infectious Diseases Society of America; ITT: Intent to treat; MDR: Multidrug-resistant; MRSA: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; MSSA: Methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus; VAP: Ventilator-associated pneumonia. Competing interests This study was sponsored by Pfizer Inc. AAQ has no disclosures to report. EGS and SP, formerly of Pfizer, were employees and shareholders of Pfizer Inc at the time this manuscript was developed. DHK has received research support, served as a consultant to, and was on the speakers bureau of Pfizer Inc, Astellas, and GlaxoSmithKline.Amrubicin Authors’ contributions All authors were responsible for conception and design of the study, analysis and interpretation of data, drafting and critical revision of the manuscript, and final approval of the manuscript.PMID:27108903 EGS and SP were responsible for obtaining funding, acquisition of data, and obtaining administrative, statistical, and technical support. DHK is guarantor of this paper and takes responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole. Acknowledgements Statistics support was provided by Michele Wible of Pfizer Inc. Editorial support was provided by Lisa Baker of UBC Scientific Solutions and was funded by Pfizer Inc. Preliminary findings from this study were presented as: Kett DH, Quartin AA, Scerpella EG, Huang DB. Demographics, Microbiology and Mortality Associated with Healthcare-Associated (HCAP), Hospital-Acquired (HAP) and Ventilator-Associated (VAP) Pneumonia: A Retrospective Analysis of 1184 patients. Abstract K-1446. Presented at 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC); September 170, 2011; Chicago, IL, USA. Author details 1 Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital, 1611 NW 12th Avenue, C455A, Miami, FL 33156, USA. 2Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Miami, FL, USA. 3Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL, USA. 4 Pfizer Inc, Collegeville, PA, USA. Received: 25 October 2012 Accepted: 12 November 2013 Published: 27 NovemberQuartin et al. BMC Infectious Diseases 2013, 13:561 http://www.biomedcentral/1471-2334/13/Page 6 ofReferences 1. Ameri.