Feasibility of a SOFA-Derived Organ Dysfunction Score in Cats with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome

The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score grades dysfunction in six components in people, using thresholds fixed against human reference ranges and a human case mix. Whether those numbers transfer to cats has not been examined. Of 52 cats assessed for eligibility, 23 met predefined systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria, 22 of them non-septic, and an adapted score was calculated at admission from non-invasive measurements and one venous sample. A complete score was obtained in every cat. Under the applied bilirubin thresholds, the hepatic sub-score exceeded zero in 21 of 23 cats and, with the renal component, accounted for 63.0% of the mean total score; removing that component lowered the median total from 6.0 to 3.0 and left three cats scoring zero. Under stated physiological assumptions, translating the original PaO₂/FiO₂ thresholds through the feline oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve placed the first respiratory threshold near 91%, rather than the 95% applied here, and removed the respiratory point from six cats. Five of the 23 cats did not survive to discharge, too few for any outcome analysis, and none was attempted. The framework was measurable in this setting, but its thresholds describe admission abnormalities rather than organ dysfunction and require feline-specific calibration.