Derivation and Validation of a Novel Severity Scoring System for Pneumonia at Intensive Care Unit Admission

Background. Severity stratification scores developed in intensive care units (ICUs) are used in interventional studies to identify the most critically ill. Studies that evaluate accuracy of these scores in ICU patients admitted with pneumonia are lacking. This study aims to determine performance of severity scores as predictors of mortality in critically ill patients admitted with pneumonia. Methods. Prospective cohort study in a general ICU in Brazil. ICU severity scores (Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 [SAPS 3] and Sepsis-Related Organ Failure Assessment [qSOFA]), prognostic scores of pneumonia (CURB-65 [confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure, age] and CRB-65 [confusion, respiratory rate, blood pressure, age]), and clinical and epidemiological variables in the first 6 hours of hospitalization were analyzed. Results. Two hundred patients were included between 2015 and 2018, with a median age of 81 years (interquartile range, 67-90 years) and female predominance (52%), primarily admitted from the emergency department (65%) with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP, 80.5%). SAPS 3, CURB-65, CRB-65,and qS0FA all exhibited poor performance in predicting mortality. Multivariate regression identified variables independently associated with mortality that were used to develop a novel pneumonia-specific ICU severity score (Pneumonia Shock score) that outperformed SAPS 3, CURB-65, and CRB-65. The Shock score was validated in an external multicenter cohort of critically ill patients admitted with CAP. Conclusions. We created a parsimonious score that accurately identifies patients with pneumonia at highest risk of ICU death. These findings are critical to accurately stratify patients with severe pneumonia in therapeutic trials that aim to reduce mortality.

Automated summary

This study aimed to evaluate the performance of ICU severity scores in predicting mortality in pneumonia patients. The findings showed that commonly used severity scores such as SAPS 3, CURB-65, CRB-65, and qSOFA had poor predictive ability in this context. A novel pneumonia-specific ICU severity score (Shock score) was developed and found to outperform existing scores in identifying patients at highest risk of ICU death.