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

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.