[Prognostic utility of the qSOFA scale in patients admitted to an Internal Medicine service due to infectious diseases]

Rev Chilena Infectol. 2021 Feb;38(1):31-36. doi: 10.4067/S0716-10182021000100031.
[Article in Spanish]

Abstract

Background: Sepsis is a serious entity. Diagnosis and early treatment is important for the prognosis.

Aim: To analyze the prognostic utility of the qSOFA scale as a predictor of mortality in patients admitted by infection in an Internal Medicine Service and describe its demographic characteristics and possible association with mortalilty.

Methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional study of patients admitted with diagnosis of acute infection at the General Hospital of Castellon (Spain) from November 2017 to February 2018.

Inclusion criteria: patients admitted on suspicion of an infectious process. Main dependent variable: mortality. Independent main variable: qSOFA scale. Secondary variables: time until the first medical evaluation and the start of empirical antibiotic therapy, demographic characteristics of the patient, analytics and evolutional.

Results: A total of 311 patients were analyzed, 145 men with an average age of 78 (DE 16,23). Seventy five presented qSOFA ≥ 2. Higher mortality was observed in those patients with qSOFA ≥ 2 (36% vs 11%, p = 0.00).

Conclusion: In patients admitted with infectious diseases, a qSOFA value > = 2 was associated with higher mortality. Future studies are required to verify its potential diagnostic utility.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Communicable Diseases* / diagnosis
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • Hospital Mortality
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Organ Dysfunction Scores
  • Prognosis
  • ROC Curve
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Sepsis*
  • Spain