Abstract
BACKGROUND: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is common and associated with significant mortality. In this study, we validated a newly proposed severity assessment rule for CAP, CURB-age, and also compared with to the currently recommended criteria in UK, CURB-65.
METHODS: We conducted a prospective study in three hospitals in Norfolk and Suffolk, UK. One hundred and ninety patients were included and followed up for 6 weeks.
RESULTS: Of 190 patients, 100 were men (53%). The age range was 18-101 years (median 76 years). Sixty-five (34%) had severe pneumonia by CURB-65 and 54 (28%) had severe pneumonia by CURB-age. There were 54 deaths during follow-up. There were 32 deaths (50%) in severe and 22 deaths (18%) in non-severe group by CURB-65. There were 27 deaths each in both the groups by CURB-age (50% of severe cases and 20% of non-severe cases). For CURB-65, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 59.3% (45.0-72.4), 75.7% (67.6-82.7), 49.2% (36.6-61.9) and 82.4% (74.6-88.6), respectively. For CURB-age, the respective values were 50.0% (31.1-63.9), 80.1% (72.4-86.5), 50.0% (36.1-63.9) and 80.1% (72.4-86.5). Exclusion of patients aged < 65 years did not alter the results.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite better specificity in correctly identifying 6-week mortality for CAP, CURB-age appears to be less sensitive than CURB-65. Our findings further assure the usefulness of CURB-65 for predicting mortality in CAP.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1345-1350 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | International Journal of Clinical Practice |
Volume | 63 |
Issue number | 9 |
Early online date | 10 Aug 2009 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Sep 2009 |
Keywords
- Age Distribution
- Aged
- Aged, 80 and over
- Community-Acquired Infections
- England
- Female
- Humans
- Male
- Pneumonia
- Prospective Studies
- Sensitivity and Specificity
- Severity of Illness Index