Abstract Background This study aimed to determine the prevalence of infectious diseases and risk factors for one-year mortality in elderly emergency department (ED) patients. Methods A retrospective cohort study of patients aged 65 and over who visited the ED of one urban teaching hospital in Bangkok, Thailand and who were diagnosed with infectious diseases between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2016. Results There were 463 elderly patients who visited ED with infectious diseases, accounting for 14.5% (463/3,196) of all elderly patients’ visits. The most common diseases diagnosed by emergency physicians (EPs) were pneumonia [151 (32.6%) patients] followed by pyelonephritis [107 (23.1%) patients] and intestinal infection [53 (11.4%) patients]. Moreover, 286 (61.8%) patients were admitted during the study period. The in-hospital mortality rate was 22.7%. 181 (39.1%) patients died within 1 year. Our multivariate analysis showed that age 85 years and older [odds ratio (OR) = 1.89; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.36–2.63], Charlson Co-morbidity Index score ≥ 5 (OR = 3.51; 95% CI2.14–5.77), lactate ≥4 mmol/l (OR = 2.66;95% CI 1.32–5.38), quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score ≥ 2 (OR = 5.46; 95% CI 2.94–10.12), and platelet count

Richard-Greenblatt M, Boillat-Blanco N, Zhong K, et al.

AbstractBackgroundThe inability to identify individuals with acute fever at risk of death is a barrier to effective triage and management of severe infections, especially in low-resource settings. Since endothelial and immune activation contribute to the pathogenesis of various distinct life-threatening infections, we hypothesized that measuring mediators of these pathways at clinical presentation would identify febrile adults at risk of death.MethodsPlasma concentrations of markers of endothelial (Angpt-2, sFlt-1, sVCAM-1, sICAM-1) and immune (sTREM-1, IL-6, IL-8, CHI3L1, sTNFR1, PCT, CRP) activation pathways were determined in consecutive adults with acute fever (>38°C) at presentation to outpatient clinics in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We evaluated the accuracy of these mediators in predicting all-cause mortality, and examined whether markers could improve the prognostic accuracy of clinical scoring systems, including the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS).ResultsOf 507 febrile adults, 32 died (6.3%) within 28 days of presentation. sTREM-1 was the best prognostic marker for 28-day mortality (area under the receiver operating characteristic [AUROC] 0.87, 95% CI 0.81-0.92) and was significantly better than CRP (P

Satoshi Koyama, Yutaka Yamaguchi, Koichiro Gibo, Izumi Nakayama, Shinichiro Ueda

by Satoshi Koyama, Yutaka Yamaguchi, Koichiro Gibo, Izumi Nakayama, Shinichiro Ueda Background The quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score has recently been introduced to the emergency department (ED) and wards, and it predicted a higher number of deaths among patients with sepsis compared with baseline risk. However, studies about the application of the qSOFA score are limited in prehospital settings. Thus, this study aimed to assess the performance of prehospital qSOFA score in predicting the risk of mortality among patients with infection. Methods This single center, retrospective cohort study was conducted in a Japanese tertiary care teaching hospital between April 2016 and March 2017. We enrolled all consecutive adult patients transported to the hospital by ambulance and admitted to the ED due to a suspected infection. We calculated the prehospital qSOFA score using the first vital sign obtained at the scene by emergency medical service (EMS) providers. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the association between prehospital qSOFA positivity and in-hospital mortality. Results Among the 925 patients admitted to the ED due to a suspected infection, 51.1% (473/925) were prehospital qSOFA-positive and 48.9% (452/925) were prehospital qSOFA-negative. The in-hospital mortality rates were 14.0% (66/473) in prehospital qSOFA-positive patients and 6.0% (27/452) in prehospital qSOFA-negative patients. The Cox proportional hazard regression model revealed a strong association between prehospital qSOFA score and in-hospital mortality (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.41, 95% confidence interval: 1.51–3.98; p…

Nobuhiro Asai, Hiroki Watanabe, Arufumi Shiota, Hideo Kato, Daisuke Sakanashi, Mao Hagihara, Yusuke Koizumi, Yuka Yamagishi, Hiroyuki Suematsu, Hiroshige Mikamo