Value of admission profile tests for prognosis in elderly patients

In a series of 934 elderly patients admitted to the geriatric department of a general hospital, several admission laboratory tests were found to provide prognostic information. When tests were combined as a discriminant function, the matter of death or survival at six weeks after admission was predicted with 84 percent accuracy in women and 77 percent in men. Values for serum sodium, blood urea, triiodothyronine uptake, and hemoglobin contributed significantly to the prediction in both sexes, whereas the values for serum albumin and blood glucose contributed only in women.