Emergency mortality of non-trauma patients was predicted by qSOFA score

This study was aimed to evaluate the performance of quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) in predicting the emergency department (ED) mortality of non-trauma patients and to expand the application scope of qSOFA score.

A single, retrospective review of non-trauma patients was conducted in ED between November 1, 2016 and November 1, 2019. The qSOFA score was obtained from vital signs and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. The outcome was ED mortality. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the association between the qSOFA score and ED mortality. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve, the best cutoff value, sensitivity and specificity were performed to ascertain the predictive value of the qSOFA score.

228(1.96%) of the 11621 patients were died. The qSOFA score was statistically higher in the non-survival group (P<0.001). The qSOFA score 0 subgroup was used as reference baseline, after adjusting for gender and age, adjusted OR of 1, 2 and 3 subgroups were 4.77 (95%CI 3.40 to 6.70), 18.17 (95%CI 12.49 to 26.44) and 23.63 (95%CI 9.54 to 58.52). All these three subgroups show significantly higher ED mortality compared to qSOFA 0 subgroup (P<0.001). AUROC of qSOFA score was 0.76 (95% CI 0.73 to 0.79). The best cutoff value was 0, sensitivity was 77.63% (95%CI 71.7% to 82.9%), and specificity was 67.2% (95%CI 66.3% to 68.1%).

The qSOFA score was associated with ED mortality in non-trauma patients and showed good prognostic performance. It can be used as a general tool to evaluate non-trauma patients in ED. This is just a retrospective cohort study, a prospective or a randomized study will be required.