Utility of non-invasive monitoring of exhaled carbon dioxide and perfusion index in adult patients in the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Several noninvasive solutions are available for the assessment of patients at risk of deterioration. Capnography, in the form of end-tidal exhaled CO2 (ETCO2) and perfusion index (PI), could provide relevant information about patient prognosis. The aim of the present project was to determine the association of ETCO2 and PI with mortality of patients admitted to the emergency department (ED). METHODS: Multicenter, prospective, cohort study of adult patients with acute disease who needed continuous monitoring in the ED. The study included two tertiary hospitals in Spain between October 2022 and June 2023. The primary outcome of the study was in-hospital mortality (all-cause). Demographics, vital signs, ETCO2 and PI were collected. RESULTS: A total of 687 patients were included in the study. The in-hospital mortality rate was 6.8%. The median age was 79 years (IQR: 69-86), and 63.3% were males. The median ETCO2 value was 30 mmHg (26-35) in survivors and 23 mmHg (16-30) in nonsurvivors (p = 0.001). For the PI, the medians were 4.7% (2.8-8.1) for survivors and 2.5% (0.98-4-4) for nonsurvivors (p < 0.001). The model that presented the best AUC was age (odds ratio (OR): 1.02 (1.00-1.05)), the respiratory rate (OR: 1.06 (1.02-1.11)), and the PI (OR: 0.83 (0.75-0.91)), with a result of 0.840 (95% CI: 0.795-0.886); the model with the respiratory rate (OR: 1.05 (1.01-1.10)), the PI (OR: 0.84 (0.76-0.93)), and the ETCO2 (no statistically significant OR), with an AUC of 0.838 (95% CI: 0.787-0.889). CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that the PI and respiratory rate are independently associated with in-hospital mortality. Both the PI and ETCO2 are predictive parameters with improved prognostic performance compared with that of standard vital signs.

Prehospital Respiratory Early Warning Score for airway management in-ambulance: A score comparison.

BACKGROUND: Prehospital Respiratory Early Warning Scores to estimate the requirement for advanced respiratory support is needed. To develop a prehospital Respiratory Early Warning Score to estimate the requirement for advanced respiratory support. METHODS: Multicentre, prospective, emergency medical services (EMS)-delivered, longitudinal cohort derivationvalidation study carried out in 59 ambulances and five hospitals across five Spanish provinces. Adults with acute diseases evaluated, supported and discharged to the Emergency Department with high priority were eligible. The primary outcome was the need for invasive or non-invasive respiratory support (NIRS or IRS) in the prehospital scope at the first contact with the patient. The measures included the following: epidemiological endpoints, prehospital vital signs (respiratory rate, pulse oximetry saturation, fraction of inspired oxygen, systolic and diastolic mean blood pressure, heart rate, tympanic temperature and consciousness level by the GCS). RESULTS: Between 26 Oct 2018 and 26 Oct 2021, we enrolled 5793 cases. For NIRS prediction, the final model of the logistic regression included respiratory rate and pulse oximetry saturation/fraction of inspired oxygen ratio. For the IRS case, the motor response from the Glasgow Coma Scale was also included. The REWS showed an AUC of 0.938 (95% CI: 0.918-0.958), a calibration-in-large of 0.026 and a higher net benefit as compared with the other scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that REWS is a remarkably aid for the decision-making process in the management of advanced respiratory support in prehospital care. Including this score in the prehospital scenario could improve patients' care and optimise the resources' management.

Prehospital seizures: Short-term outcomes and risk stratification based in point-of-care testing.

BACKGROUND: Information for treatment or hospital derivation of prehospital seizures is limited, impairing patient condition and hindering patients risk assessment by the emergency medical services (EMS). This study aimed to determine the associated factors to clinical impairment, and secondarily, to determine risk factors associated to cumulative in-hospital mortality at 2, 7 and 30 days, in patients presenting prehospital seizures. METHODS: Prospective, multicentre, EMS-delivery study involving adult subjects with prehospital seizures, including five advanced life support units, 27 basic life support units and four emergency departments in Spain. All bedside variables: including demographic, standard vital signs, prehospital laboratory tests and presence of intoxication or traumatic brain injury (TBI), were analysed to construct a risk model using binary logistic regression and internal validation methods. RESULTS: A total of 517 patients were considered. Clinical impairment was present in 14.9%, and cumulative in-hospital mortality at 2, 7 and 30-days was 3.4%, 4.6% and 7.7%, respectively. The model for the clinical impairment indicated that respiratory rate, partial pressure of carbon dioxide, blood urea nitrogen, associated TBI or stroke were risk factors; higher Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores mean a lower risk of impairment. Age, potassium, glucose, prehospital use of mechanical ventilation and concomitant stroke were risk factors associated to mortality; and oxygen saturation, a high score in GCS and haemoglobin were protective factors. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that prehospital variables could reflect the clinical impairment and mortality of patients suffering from seizures. The incorporation of such variables in the prehospital decision-making process could improve patient outcomes.

Development of a prehospital lactic acidosis score for early-mortality. A prospective, multicenter, ambulance-based, cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Lactic acidosis is a clinical status related to clinical worsening. Actually, higher levels of lactate is a well-established trigger of emergency situations. The aim of this work is to build-up a prehospital early warning score to predict 2-day mortality and intensive care unit (ICU) admission, constructed with other components of the lactic acidosis besides the lactate. METHODS: Prospective, multicenter, observational, derivation-validation cohort study of adults evacuated by ambulance and admitted to emergency department with acute diseases, between January 1st, 2020 and December 31st, 2021. Including six advanced life support, thirty-eight basic life support units, referring to four hospitals (Spain). The primary and secondary outcome of the study were 2-day all-cause mortality and ICU-admission. The prehospital lactic acidosis (PLA) score was derived from the analysis of prehospital blood parameters associated with the outcome using a logistic regression. The calibration, clinical utility, and discrimination of PLA were determined and compared to the performance of each component of the score alone. RESULTS: A total of 3334 patients were enrolled. The final PLA score included: lactate, pCO2, and pH. For 2-day mortality, the PLA showed an AUC of 0.941 (95%CI: 0.914-0.967), a better performance in calibration, and a higher net benefit as compared to the other score components alone. For the ICU admission, the PLA only showed a better performance for AUC: 0.75 (95%CI: 0.706-0.794). CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that PLA predicts 2-day mortality better than other lactic acidosis components alone. Including PLA score in prehospital setting could improve emergency services decision-making.

Novel Prehospital Phenotypes and Outcomes in Adult-Patients with Acute Disease.

An early identification of prehospital phenotypes may allow health care workers to speed up and improve patients' treatment. To determine emergency phenotypes by exclusively using prehospital clinical data, a multicenter, prospective, and observational ambulance-based study was conducted with a cohort of 3,853 adult patients treated consecutively and transferred with high priority from the scene to the hospital emergency department. Cluster analysis determined three clusters with highly different outcome scores and pathological characteristics. The first cluster presented a 30-day mortality after the index event of 45.9%. The second cluster presented a mortality of 26.3%, while mortality of the third cluster was 5.1%. This study supports the detection of three phenotypes with different risk stages and with different clinical, therapeutic, and prognostic considerations. This evidence could allow adapting treatment to each phenotype thereby helping in the decision-making process.

Prehospital troponin as a predictor of early clinical deterioration.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Elevated troponin T (cTnT) values are associated with comorbidities and early mortality, in both cardiovascular and noncardiovascular diseases. The objective of this study is to evaluate the prognostic accuracy of the sole utilization of prehospital point-of-care cardiac troponin T to identify the risk of early in-hospital deterioration, including mortality within 28 days. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, multicentric, controlled, ambulance-based, observational study in adults with acute diseases transferred with high priority by ambulance to emergency departments, between 1 January and 30 September 2020. Patients with hospital diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome were excluded. The discriminative power of the predictive cTnT was assessed through a discrimination model trained using a derivation cohort and evaluated by the area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic on a validation cohort. RESULTS: A total of 848 patients were included in our study. The median age was 68 years (25th-75th percentiles: 50-81 years), and 385 (45.4%) were women. The mortality rate within 28 days was 12.4% (156 cases). The predictive ability of cTnT to predict mortality presented an area under the curve of 0.903 (95% CI: 0.85-0.954; P < .001). Risk stratification was performed, resulting in three categories with the following optimal cTnT cut-off points: high risk greater than or equal to 100, intermediate risk 40-100 and low risk less than 40 ng/L. In the high-risk group, the mortality rate was 61.7%, and on the contrary, the low-risk group presented a mortality of 2.3%. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a routine determination of cTnT on the ambulance in patients transferred with high priority to the emergency department can help to stratify the risk of these patients and to detect unknown early clinical deterioration.

The Value of Prehospital Early Warning Scores to Predict in - Hospital Clinical Deterioration: A Multicenter, Observational Base-Ambulance Study.

OBJECTIVES: Early warning scores are clinical tools capable of identifying prehospital patients with high risk of deterioration. We sought here to contrast the validity of seven early warning scores in the prehospital setting and specifically, to evaluate the predictive value of each score to determine early deterioration-risk during the hospital stay, including mortality at one, two, three and seven- days since the index event. Methods: A prospective multicenter observational based-ambulance study of patients treated by six advanced life support emergency services and transferred to five Spanish hospitals between October 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019. We collected demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables. Seven risk score were constructed based on the analysis of prehospital variables associated with death within one, two, three and seven days since the index event. The area under the receiver operating characteristics was used to determine the discriminant validity of each early warning score. Results: A total of 3,273 participants with acute diseases were accurately linked. The median age was 69 years (IQR, 54-81 years), 1,348 (41.1%) were females. The overall mortality rate for patients in the study cohort ranged from 3.5% for first-day mortality (114 cases), to 7% for seven-day mortality (228 cases). The scores with the best performances for one-day mortality were Vitalpac Early Warning Score with an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) of 0.873 (95% CI: 0.81-0.9), for two-day mortality, Triage Early Warning Score with an AUROC of 0.868 (95% CI: 0.83-0.9), for three and seven-days mortality the Modified Rapid Emergency Medicine Score with an AUROC of 0.857 (0.82-0.89) and 0.833 (95% CI: 0.8-0.86). In general, there were no significant differences between the scores analyzed. Conclusions: All the analyzed scores have a good predictive capacity for early mortality, and no statistically significant differences between them were found. The National Early Warning Score 2, at the clinical level, has certain advantages. Early warning scores are clinical tools that can help in the complex decision-making processes during critical moments, so their use should be generalized in all emergency medical services.

Time for a prehospital-modified sequential organ failure assessment score: An ambulance-Based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: To adapt the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score to fit the prehospital care needs; to do that, the SOFA was modified by replacing platelets and bilirubin, by lactate, and tested this modified SOFA (mSOFA) score in its prognostic capacity to assess the mortality-risk at 2 days since the first Emergency Medical Service (EMS) contact. METHODS: Prospective, multicentric, EMS-delivery, ambulance-based, pragmatic cohort study of adults with acute diseases, referred to two tertiary care hospitals (Spain), between January 1st and December 31st, 2020. The discriminative power of the predictive variable was assessed through a prediction model trained using the derivation cohort and evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) on the validation cohort. RESULTS: A total of 1114 participants comprised two separated cohorts recruited from 15 ambulance stations. The 2-day mortality rate (from any cause) was 5.9% (66 cases). The predictive validity of the mSOFA score was assessed by the calculation of the AUC of ROC in the validation cohort, resulting in an AUC of 0.946 (95% CI, 0.913-0.978, p < .001), with a positive likelihood ratio was 23.3 (95% CI, 0.32-46.2). CONCLUSIONS: Scoring systems are now a reality in prehospital care, and the mSOFA score assesses multiorgan dysfunction in a simple and agile manner either bedside or en route. Patients with acute disease and an mSOFA score greater than 6 points transferred with high priority by EMS represent a high early mortality group. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN48326533, Registered Octuber 312,019, Prospectively registered (doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN48326533).

Can capillary lactate improve early warning scores in emergency department? An observational, prospective, multicentre study.

AIMS: To determine the prognostic usefulness of the National Early Warning Score-2 (NEWS2) and quick Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) scores, in isolation and combined with capillary lactate (CL), using the new NEWS2-L and qSOFA-L scores to predict the 30-day mortality risk. METHODS: Prospective, multicentre and observational study in patients across four EDs. We collected sets of vital signs and CL and subsequently calculated NEWS2, qSOFA, NEWS2-L and qSOFA-L scores when patients arrived at the ED. The main outcome measure was all-cause mortality 30 days from the index event. RESULTS: A total of 941 patients were included. Thirty-six patients (3.8%) died within 30 days of the index event. A high CL level has not been linked to a higher mortality. The NEWS2 presented AUROC of 0.72 (95% CI: 0.62-0.81), qSOFA of 0.66 (95% CI: 0.56-0.77) (P < .001 in both cases) and CL 0.55 (95% CI: 0.42-0.65; P = .229) to predict 30-day mortality. The addition of CL to the scores analysed does not improve the results of the scores used in isolation. CONCLUSION: NEWS2 and qSOFA scores are a very useful tool for assessing the status of patients who come to the ED in general for all types of patients in triage categories II and III and for detecting the 30-day mortality risk. CL determined systematically in the ED does not seem to provide information on the prognosis of the patients.

A predictive model for serious adverse events in adults with acute poisoning in prehospital and hospital care.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to design a risk model with variables determined before hospital arrival to predict the risk of serious adverse events in patients with acute poisoning. METHODS: A preliminary prospective, multicentre cohort study of adults with prehospital diagnosis of acute intoxication was conducted. The study was carried out in the Public Health System of the Community of Castilla-Leon (Spain), including seven advanced life support units and five hospitals, between April 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019. People aged >18 years with a main prehospital diagnosis of acute poisoning admitted to a referral hospital on advanced life support were included. The main outcome measure was prehospital and hospital serious adverse events in patients with acute poisoning. RESULTS: We included 221 patients, with a median age of 47 years (interquartile range: 33-61). The most frequent cause of poisoning was psychopharmaceuticals (111 cases, 49.8%): 38 (17.2%) patients had a serious adverse event, with a hospital mortality of 4.1% (nine cases) in the 30 days after the index event. The final model included age ≥65 years (odds ratio [OR]: 9.59, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.48-26.45; p < 0.001), oxygen saturation/fraction of inspired oxygen index ≤300 (OR: 15.03, 95% CI: 5.74-39.33; p < 0.001), and point-of-care lactate ≥4 mmol/L (OR: 7.68, 95% CI: 2.88-20.45; p < 0.001). The poisoning Early Warning Score was constructed from these three variables, and 1 point was assigned to each variable. The area under the curve of the score was 0.896 (95% CI: 0.82-0.96; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The poisoning Early Warning Score may help in decision-making and promote early identification of high-risk patients with acute poisoning in the prehospital context.

Accuracy of prehospital point-of-care lactate in early in-hospital mortality.

BACKGROUND: Emergency medical services (EMS) routinely face complex scenarios where decisions should be taken with limited clinical information. The development of fast, reliable and easy to perform warning biomarkers could help in such decision-making processes. The present study aims at characterizing the validity of point-of-care lactate (pLA) during prehospital tasks for predicting in-hospital mortality within two days after the EMS assistance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective, multicentric, ambulance-based and controlled observational study without intervention, including six advanced life support and five hospitals. The pLA levels were recorded during EMS assistance of adult patients. The validity of pLA to determine the in-hospital mortality was assessed by the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating curve (ROC). RESULTS: A total of 2997 patients were considered in the study, with a median of 69 years (IQR 54-81) and 41.4% of women. The median pLA value was 2.7 mmol/L (1.9-3.8) in survivors and 5.7 mmol/L (4.4-7.6) in nonsurvivors. The global discrimination level of pLA reached an AUC of 0.867, being 1.9 mmol/L and 4 mmol/L the cut-off point for low and high mortality. The discrimination value of pLA was not affected by sex, age or pathology. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the clinical importance of prehospital pLA to determine the in-hospital risk of mortality. The incorporation of pLA into the EMS protocols could improve the early identification of risky patients, leading to a better care of such patients.

Prognostic value of lactate in prehospital care as a predictor of early mortality.

BACKGROUND: Prehospital Emergency Medical Services must attend to patients with complex physiopathological situations with little data and in the shortest possible time. The objective of this work was to study lactic acid values and their usefulness in the prehospital setting to help in clinical decision-making. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a longitudinal prospective, observational study on patients over 18 years of age who, after being evaluated by the Advanced Life Support Unit, were taken to the hospital between April and June 2018. We analyzed demographic variables, prehospital lactic acid values and early mortality (<30 days). The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic was calculated for the prehospital value of lactic acid. RESULTS: A total of 279 patients were included in our study. The median age was 68 years (interquartile range: 54-80 years). Overall 30-day mortality was 9% (25 patients). The area under the curve for lactic acid to predict overall mortality at 30 days of care was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.76-0.89). The lactate value with the best sensitivity and specificity overall was 4.25 mmol/L with a sensitivity of 84% (95% CI: 65.3-93.6) and specificity of 70% (95% CI: 65.0-76.1). CONCLUSIONS: The level of lactic acid can be a complementary tool in the field of prehospital emergencies that will guide us early in the detection of critical patients.

A New mHealth App for Monitoring and Awareness of Healthy Eating: Development and User Evaluation by Spanish Users.

Modern-day society has moved towards a more sedentary lifestyle. Advances in technology and changes in habits in our daily lives have led a large part of the population towards a spiralling sedentary lifestyle and obesity. The main objective of this work is to develop and subsequently assess a mobile app, named DietApp, that provides advice about obtaining a healthy diet according to age, clinical history and physical condition. DietApp has been developed for iOS and Android systems, and a survey comprising 7 simple questions enabled the app to be evaluated on a user level by taking into account aspects such as its usefulness and ease of use. DietApp was assessed by 150 Spanish individuals between 18 and 69 years of age, and 84% of them thought it was easy to use. 80% of users also considered the dietary suggestions provided by the app to be very useful while 62% were of the opinion that it is very useful in general. All of them would recommend the app to other users. During the six months when the app was used, any dietary excess or shortcomings were corrected in 72% of those interviewed. A mobile app has been created that is easy to use and attractive, providing personalised suggestions according to illness that are useful for the individual.

Epidemiological Characteristics of Renal Colic and Climate-Related Causes in a Continental Area in Spain.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence of renal colic (RC) in a northwestern area of Spain and its relationship with seasonal and meteorological characteristics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined 700,257 cases that presented at the emergency room (ER) between 2005 and 2013. We reviewed data such as age, gender, arrival at ER, tests performed and destination after ER. Monthly data regarding temperature, humidity and hours of daylight were taken into account. The Student t-test, the Mann-Whitney test and the Chi-square test were used for the statistical analysis. RC visits were correlated with meteorological characteristics using the Pearson correlation coefficients. RESULTS: A total of 9,330 cases were diagnosed as RC episodes (1.41% of total cases presented). The age range was 14-100 years and mean age was 47 years. Prevalence in men was higher (55.6%) than in women (44.4%). After the seasonal decomposition analysis by month, a significant increase in RC incidence was observed in the months of June, July, August and December (107-114%). There is a statistically significant correlation between mean monthly temperature and RC visit rate (R 0.33, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The incidence of RC in our region is slightly higher than the one described in the literature. A significant increase in RCs is observed in the summer months, as well as a significant correlation between incidence and temperature.

Spanish vs USA cohort comparison of prehospital trauma scores to predict short-term mortality.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate three prehospital early warning scores (EWSs): RTS, MGAP and MREMS, to predict short-term mortality in acute life-threatening trauma and injury/illness by comparing United States (US) and Spanish cohorts. METHODS: A total of 8,854 patients, 8,598/256 survivors/nonsurvivors, comprised the unified cohort. Datasets were randomly divided into training and test sets. Training sets were used to analyse the discriminative power of the scores in terms of the area under the curve (AUC), and the score performance was assessed in the test set in terms of sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), accuracy (ACC) and balanced accuracy (BAC). RESULTS: The three scores showed great discriminative power with AUCs>0.90, and no significant differences between cohorts were found. In the test set, RTS/MREMS/MGAP showed SE/SP/ACC/BAC values of 86.0/89.9/89.6/87.1%, 91.0/86.9/87.5/88.5%, and 87.7/82.9/83.4/85.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: All EWSs showed excellent ability to predict the risk of short-term mortality, independent of the country.

Long-term risk of death in patients with infection attended by prehospital emergency services. / Modelo de riesgo de mortalidad a largo plazo en pacientes con infección atendidos por servicios de emergencias prehospitalarios.

OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate a risk model for 1-year mortality based on variables available from early prehospital emergency attendance of patients with infection. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Prospective, observational, noninterventional multicenter study in adults with suspected infection transferred to 4 Spanish hospitals by advanced life-support ambulances from June 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022. We collected demographic, physiological, clinical, and analytical data. Cox regression analysis was used to develop and validate a risk model for 1-year mortality. RESULTS: Four hundred ten patients were enrolled (development cohort, 287; validation cohort, 123). Cumulative mortality was 49% overall. Sepsis (infection plus a Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment score of 2 or higher) was diagnosed in 29.2% of survivors vs 56.7% of nonsurvivors. The risk model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.89 for 1-year mortality. The following predictors were included in the model: age; institutionalization; age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index; PaCO2; potassium, lactate, urea nitrogen, and creatinine levels; fraction of inspired oxygen; and diagnosed sepsis. CONCLUSION: The model showed excellent ability to predict 1-year mortality based on epidemiological, analytical, and clinical variables, identifying patients at high risk of death soon after their first contact with the health care system.

OBJETIVO: Diseñar y validar un modelo de riesgo con variables determinadas a nivel prehospitalario para predecir el riesgo de mortalidad a largo plazo (1 año) en pacientes con infección. METODO: Estudio multicéntrico, observacional prospectivo, sin intervención, en pacientes adultos con sospecha infección atendidos por unidades de soporte vital avanzado y trasladados a 4 hospitales españoles entre el 1 de junio de 2020 y el 30 de junio de 2022. Se recogieron variables demográficas, fisiológicas, clínicas y analíticas. Se construyó y validó un modelo de riesgo para la mortalidad a un año usando una regresión de Cox. RESULTADOS: Se incluyeron 410 pacientes, con una tasa de mortalidad acumulada al año del 49%. La tasa de diagnóstico de sepsis (infección e incremento sobre el SOFA basal $ 2 puntos) fue del 29,2% en supervivientes frente a un 56,7% en no supervivientes. El modelo predictivo obtuvo un área bajo la curva de la característica operativa del receptor para la mortalidad a un año fue de 0,89, e incluyó: edad, institucionalización, índice de comorbilidad de Charlson ajustado por edad, presión parcial de dióxido de carbono, potasio, lactato, nitrógeno ureico en sangre, creatinina, saturación en relación con fracción inspirada de oxígeno y diagnóstico de sepsis. CONCLUSIONES: El modelo desarrollado con variables epidemiológicas, analíticas y clínicas mostró una excelente capacidad predictiva, y permitió identificar desde el primer contacto del paciente con el sistema sanitario, a modo de evento centinela, casos de alto riesgo.

Comparison of eight prehospital early warning scores in life-threatening acute respiratory distress: a prospective, observational, multicentre, ambulance-based, external validation study.

BACKGROUND: A myriad of early warning scores (EWSs) exist, yet there is a need to identify the most clinically valid score to be used in prehospital respiratory assessments to estimate short-term and midterm mortality, intensive-care unit admission, and airway management in life-threatening acute respiratory distress. METHODS: This is a prospective, observational, multicentre, ambulance-based, external validation study performed in 44 ambulance services and four hospitals across three Spanish provinces (ie, Salamanca, Segovia, and Valladolid). We identified adults (ie, those aged 18 years and older) discharged to the emergency department with suspected acute respiratory distress. The primary outcome was 2-day all-cause in-hospital mortality, for all the patients or according to prehospital respiratory conditions, including dyspnoea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), COVID-19, other infections, and other conditions (asthma exacerbation, haemoptysis, and bronchoaspirations). 30-day mortality, intensive-care unit admission, and invasive and non-invasive mechanical ventilation were secondary outcomes. Eight EWSs, namely, the National Early Warning Score 2, the Modified Rapid Emergency Medicine Score, the Rapid Acute Physiology Score, the Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score, the CURB-65 Severity Score for Community-Acquired Pneumonia, the BAP-65 Score for Acute Exacerbation of COPD, the Quick COVID-19 Severity Index, and the Modified Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (mSOFA), were explored to determine their predictive validity through calibration, clinical net benefit as determined through decision curve analysis, and discrimination analysis (area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic [AUROC], compared with Delong's test). FINDINGS: Between Jan 1, 2020, and Nov 31, 2022, 902 patients were enrolled. The global 2-day mortality rate was 87 (10%); in proportion to various respiratory conditions, the rates were 35 (40%) for dyspnoea, nine (10%) for COPD, 13 (15%) for COVID-19, 28 (32%) for other infections, and two (2%) for others conditions. mSOFA showed the best calibration, a higher net benefit, and the best discrimination (AUROC 0·911, 95% CI 0·86-0·95) for predicting 2-day mortality, and its discrimination was statistically significantly more accurate (p<0·0001) compared with the other scores. The performance of mSOFA for predicting 2-day mortality was higher than the other scores when considering the prehospital respiratory conditions, and was also higher for the secondary outcomes, except for non-invasive mechanical ventilation. INTERPRETATION: Our results showed that mSOFA outperformed other EWSs. The inclusion of mSOFA in prehospital decision making will entail a quick identification of patients in acute respiratory distress at high risk of deterioration, allowing prioritisation of resources and patient care. FUNDING: Gerencia Regional de Salud, Public Health System of Castilla y León (GRS Spain). TRANSLATION: For the Spanish translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

A Comparison of the Clinical Characteristics of Short-, Mid-, and Long-Term Mortality in Patients Attended by the Emergency Medical Services: An Observational Study.

AIM: The development of predictive models for patients treated by emergency medical services (EMS) is on the rise in the emergency field. However, how these models evolve over time has not been studied. The objective of the present work is to compare the characteristics of patients who present mortality in the short, medium and long term, and to derive and validate a predictive model for each mortality time. METHODS: A prospective multicenter study was conducted, which included adult patients with unselected acute illness who were treated by EMS. The primary outcome was noncumulative mortality from all causes by time windows including 30-day mortality, 31- to 180-day mortality, and 181- to 365-day mortality. Prehospital predictors included demographic variables, standard vital signs, prehospital laboratory tests, and comorbidities. RESULTS: A total of 4830 patients were enrolled. The noncumulative mortalities at 30, 180, and 365 days were 10.8%, 6.6%, and 3.5%, respectively. The best predictive value was shown for 30-day mortality (AUC = 0.930; 95% CI: 0.919-0.940), followed by 180-day (AUC = 0.852; 95% CI: 0.832-0.871) and 365-day (AUC = 0.806; 95% CI: 0.778-0.833) mortality. DISCUSSION: Rapid characterization of patients at risk of short-, medium-, or long-term mortality could help EMS to improve the treatment of patients suffering from acute illnesses.

Derivation and validation of a blood biomarker score for 2-day mortality prediction from prehospital care: a multicenter, cohort, EMS-based study.

Identifying potentially life-threatening diseases is a key challenge for emergency medical services. This study aims at examining the role of different prehospital biomarkers from point-of-care testing to derive and validate a score to detect 2-day in-hospital mortality. We conducted a prospective, observational, prehospital, ongoing, and derivation-validation study in three Spanish provinces, in adults evacuated by ambulance and admitted to the emergency department. A total of 23 ambulance-based biomarkers were collected from each patient. A biomarker score based on logistic regression was fitted to predict 2-day mortality from an optimum subset of variables from prehospital blood analysis, obtained through an automated feature selection stage. 2806 cases were analyzed, with a median age of 68 (interquartile range 51-81), 42.3% of women, and a 2-day mortality rate of 5.5% (154 non-survivors). The blood biomarker score was constituted by the partial pressure of carbon dioxide, lactate, and creatinine. The score fitted with logistic regression using these biomarkers reached a high performance to predict 2-day mortality, with an AUC of 0.933 (95% CI 0.841-0.973). The following risk levels for 2-day mortality were identified from the score: low risk (score < 1), where only 8.2% of non-survivors were assigned to; medium risk (1 ≤ score < 4); and high risk (score ≥ 4), where the 2-day mortality rate was 57.6%. The novel blood biomarker score provides an excellent association with 2-day in-hospital mortality, as well as real-time feedback on the metabolic-respiratory patient status. Thus, this score can help in the decision-making process at critical moments in life-threatening situations.

Modified Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score vs. Early Warning Scores in Prehospital Care to Predict Major Adverse Cardiac Events in Acute Cardiovascular Disease.

(1) Background: The Modified Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (mSOFA) is an Early Warning Score (EWS) that has proven to be useful in identifying patients at high risk of mortality in prehospital care. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the predictive validity of prehospital mSOFA in estimating 2- and 90-day mortality (all-cause) in patients with acute cardiovascular diseases (ACVD), and to compare this validity to that of four other widely-used EWS. (2) Methods: We conducted a prospective, observational, multicentric, ambulance-based study in adults with suspected ACVD who were transferred by ambulance to Emergency Departments (ED). The primary outcome was 2- and 90-day mortality (all-cause in- and out-hospital). The discriminative power of the predictive variable was assessed and evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC). (3) Results: A total of 1540 patients met the inclusion criteria. The 2- and 90-day mortality rates were 5.3% and 12.7%, respectively. The mSOFA showed the highest AUC of all the evaluated scores for both 2- and 90-day mortality, AUC = 0.943 (0.917-0.968) and AUC = 0.874 (0.847-0.902), respectively. (4) Conclusions: The mSOFA is a quick and easy-to-use EWS with an excellent ability to predict mortality at both 2 and 90 days in patients treated for ACVD, and has proved to be superior to the other EWS evaluated in this study.