Comparison of the accuracy of three early warning scores with SOFA score for predicting mortality in adult sepsis and septic shock patients admitted to intensive care unit

Heart Lung. 2019 May-Jun;48(3):240-244. doi: 10.1016/j.hrtlng.2019.02.005. Epub 2019 Mar 19.

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and Search Out Severity (SOS), with the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) and SOFA scores, to predict outcomes in sepsis patients.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in intensive care unit of university teaching hospital.

Results: A total of 1,589 sepsis patients were enrolled. The SOFA score had the best accuracy to predict hospital mortality, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.880 followed by SOS (0.878), MEWS (0.858), qSOFA (0.847) and NEWS (0.833). The SOS score provided a similar performance with SOFA score in predicting mortality.

Conclusion: The SOS presents nearly as good as the SOFA score, to predict mortality among sepsis patients admitted to the ICU. The early warning score is another, alternative tool to use for risk stratification and sepsis screening for ICU sepsis patients.

Keywords: MEWS; NEWS; Prognosis; SOS; Search Out Severity; Septic shock.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Early Warning Score
  • Female
  • Hospital Mortality / trends
  • Humans
  • Inpatients*
  • Intensive Care Units*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Organ Dysfunction Scores
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Prognosis
  • ROC Curve
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Sepsis / diagnosis
  • Sepsis / mortality
  • Shock, Septic / diagnosis
  • Shock, Septic / mortality*
  • Survival Rate / trends
  • Thailand / epidemiology