To evaluate the effect of various chemotherapy courses on the rate of bloodstream infections (BSI) during therapy-related neutropenia, all infection episodes of adult patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) during 7 y were retrospectively analysed in a university hospital. Of the 182 infection episodes in 76 AML patients, 37% (n = 68) were BSI. The riskratio (RR) of BSI was highest after regimens containing high-dose cytarabine (2.4 with 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3-4.4) and lowest after thioguanine-containing courses (RR: 0.2, 95% CI 0.2-0.5). Chemotherapy courses per se may have an influence on the rate of BSI during neutropenia.