Severity of illness scores in the pediatric intensive care unit: a practical guide
Critical Care Science. 10-14-2024;36:e20240205en
DOI: 10.62675/2965-2774.20240205-en
UNDERSTANDING SEVERITY-OF-ILLNESS SCORES
The severity of illness is generally assessed based on a variety of demographic, clinical, physiological and laboratory variables. The SIS used in pediatric ICUs are based on the assumption that there is a predictable relationship between the severity of illness at the time of admission and the risk of death in the pediatric ICU. Essentially, they are mathematical models derived by applying stepwise logistic regression to an observational cohort, in which a specific value is assigned to each mortality-predictive variable, resulting in final odds transformed into the probability of death. Predictive variables can include physiological alterations (such as blood pressure, heart rate, and laboratory values), the need for interventions (such as mechanical ventilation and inotropes), the patient’s underlying condition (such as malignant disease) and emergency admission to the pediatric ICU, among others. The performance of the resulting model is then assessed on the basis of its overall discrimination and calibration. If both measures are adequate, before the model is used in daily practice, it must be validated in a separate sample of patients from the same population (internal validation).
Read full text: https://criticalcarescience.org/article/severity-of-illness-scores-in-the-pediatric-intensive-care-unit-a-practical-guide/
Marcel Muraro
Bruno Stefan
