Initial validation of a brief provisional diagnostic scale for delirium

The Delirium Diagnostic Tool-Provisional (DDT-Pro) is a newly developed provisional diagnostic tool for delirium presented here. This study evaluated its accuracy and validity in a population of participants with acquired brain injury (ABI).

Cross-sectional study.

Thirty-six patients with ABI, including traumatic brain injury (TBI; n = 29) and intraparenchymal haemorrhage (ICH; n = 7) were assessed at admission to inpatient rehabilitation using the DDT-Pro, the Delirium Rating Scale-Revised 98 (DRS-R98) and DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for delirium.

Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the estimate of accuracy, the area under the curve (AUC), was 0.994, and the DDT-Pro accurately classified 35/36 (97%) observations vs the DSM-IV-TR gold standard. The DDT-Pro correlated well with the DRS-R98 both in terms of raw score (r = -0.913, p < 0.0001) and estimates of the duration of delirium (r = 0.975, p < 0.0001).

The DDT-Pro is supported as a measure of delirium following ABI. Further validation in ABI and other medical populations is recommended.