Validation of prognostic accuracy of the SOFA score, SIRS criteria, and qSOFA score for in-hospital mortality among cardiac-, thoracic-, and vascular-surgery patients admitted to a cardiothoracic intensive care unit.

SEPSIS-3 DEFINITION: Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection. The clinical criteria of sepsis include organ dysfunction, which is defined as an increase of two points or more on the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA). For patients with infection, an increase of 2 SOFA points yields an overall mortality rate of 10%. Patients with suspected infection who are likely to have a prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay or to have in-hospital mortality can be promptly identified at the bedside with a quick SOFA (qSOFA) score of 2 or higher. IMPORTANCE: The sepsis-3 criteria have emphasized the value of a change of two or more points on the SOFA, introduced the qSOFA, and removed the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria from the sepsis definition. OBJECTIVE: To externally validate and assess the discriminatory capacities of an increase in the SOFA score by two or more points, the presence of two or more SIRS criteria, or a qSOFA score of 2 or more points for outcomes in 5109 patients, the vast majority of whom were postcardiac surgery patients who were admitted to a Cardiothoracic Surgical ICU in Singapore. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A retrospective cohort analysis of 5109 patients with an infection-related primary admission diagnosis in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit (CTICU) at the National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore from 2010 to 2016. EXPOSURES: The SOFA, qSOFA, and SIRS criteria were applied to the data representing the worst condition within 24 hours of ICU admission. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Discrimination was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). RESULTS: In 5109 patients, the average mortality of patients with an increase in the SOFA scores of less than 2 points was 3.5% (n = 64), and it was 6% (n = 199) for those with an increase in the SOFA scores of 2 or more points. The mortality of patients with an increase in the qSOFA scores of less than 2 points was 2.6% (n = 7), and it was 5.3% (n = 256) for those with an increase in the qSOFA scores of 2 or more points. The mortality of patients with an increase in the SIRS criteria of less than 2 points was 3.6% (n = 30), and it was 5.4% (n = 233) for those with an increase in the SIRS criteria of 2 or more points. The AUROC of in-hospital mortality of patients with an increase in the SOFA, qSOFA, and SIRS criteria of 2 or more points was 0.96, 0.95, and 0.95, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In adults with suspected infection admitted to the CTICU in NUH, the change in in-hospital mortality between patients with an increase in SOFA scores of less than 2 and those with an increase of 2 or more was 2.5 percentage points. In contrast to other studies, the absolute change in mortality was nearly the same compared to the qSOFA and SIRS criteria, and the qSOFA score had the greatest percentage increase of 104%, compared to 71% for the SOFA score and 50% for the SIRS criteria. Besides, from the perspective of discriminatory capacities, an increase in SOFA scores of 2 or more did not demonstrate significantly greater prognostic accuracy for in-hospital mortality than equivalent increases in qSOFA scores or SIRS criteria. These findings suggest distinctive characteristics of the study population in the CTICU that are different from the general population.

Frequency and mortality of septic shock in Europe and North America: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Septic shock is the most severe form of sepsis, in which profound underlying abnormalities in circulatory and cellular/metabolic parameters lead to substantially increased mortality. A clear understanding and up-to-date assessment of the burden and epidemiology of septic shock are needed to help guide resource allocation and thus ultimately improve patient care. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was therefore to provide a recent evaluation of the frequency of septic shock in intensive care units (ICUs) and associated ICU and hospital mortality. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library from 1 January 2005 to 20 February 2018 for observational studies that reported on the frequency and mortality of septic shock. Four reviewers independently selected studies and extracted data. Disagreements were resolved via consensus. Random effects meta-analyses were performed to estimate pooled frequency of septic shock diagnosed at admission and during the ICU stay and to estimate septic shock mortality in the ICU, hospital, and at 28 or 30 days. RESULTS: The literature search identified 6291 records of which 71 articles met the inclusion criteria. The frequency of septic shock was estimated at 10.4% (95% CI 5.9 to 16.1%) in studies reporting values for patients diagnosed at ICU admission and at 8.3% (95% CI 6.1 to 10.7%) in studies reporting values for patients diagnosed at any time during the ICU stay. ICU mortality was 37.3% (95% CI 31.5 to 43.5%), hospital mortality 39.0% (95% CI 34.4 to 43.9%), and 28-/30-day mortality 36.7% (95% CI 32.8 to 40.8%). Significant between-study heterogeneity was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our literature review reaffirms the continued common occurrence of septic shock and estimates a high mortality of around 38%. The high level of heterogeneity observed in this review may be driven by variability in defining and applying the diagnostic criteria, as well as differences in treatment and care across settings and countries.

Stop in Time: How to Reduce Unnecessary Antibiotics in Newborns with Late-Onset Sepsis in Neonatal Intensive Care.

The fear of missing sepsis episodes in neonates frequently leads to indiscriminate use of antibiotics, and prescription program optimization is suggested for reducing this inappropriate usage. While different authors have studied how to reduce antibiotic overprescription in the case of early onset sepsis episodes, with different approaches being available, less is known about late-onset sepsis episodes. Biomarkers (such as C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, interleukin-6 and 8, and presepsin) can play a crucial role in the prompt diagnosis of late-onset sepsis, but their role in antimicrobial stewardship should be further studied, given that different factors can influence their levels and newborns can be subjected to prolonged therapy if their levels are expected to return to zero. To date, procalcitonin has the best evidence of performance in this sense, as extrapolated from research on early onset cases, but more studies and protocols for biomarker-guided antibiotic stewardship are needed. Blood cultures (BCs) are considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of sepsis: positive BC rates in neonatal sepsis workups have been reported as low, implying that the majority of treated neonates may receive unneeded drugs. New identification methods can increase the accuracy of BCs and guide antibiotic de-escalation. To date, after 36-48 h, if BCs are negative and the baby is clinically stable, antibiotics should be stopped. In this narrative review, we provide a summary of current knowledge on the optimum approach to reduce antibiotic pressure in late-onset sepsis in neonates.

The use of probabilistic graphical models in pediatric sepsis: a feasibility and scoping review.

Background: Recent research has demonstrated that machine learning (ML) has the potential to improve several aspects of medical application for critical illness, including sepsis. This scoping review aims to evaluate the feasibility of probabilistic graphical model (PGM) methods in pediatric sepsis application and describe the use of pediatric sepsis definition in these studies. Methods: Literature searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL+), and Web of Sciences from 2000-2023. Keywords included "pediatric", "neonates", "infants", "machine learning", "probabilistic graphical model", and "sepsis". Results: A total of 3,244 studies were screened, and 72 were included in this scoping review. Sepsis was defined using positive microbiology cultures in 19 studies (26.4%), followed by the 2005's international pediatric sepsis consensus definition in 11 studies (15.3%), and Sepsis-3 definition in seven studies (9.7%). Other sepsis definitions included: bacterial infection, the international classification of diseases, clinicians' assessment, and antibiotic administration time. Among the most common ML approaches used were logistic regression (n=27), random forest (n=24), and Neural Network (n=18). PGMs were used in 13 studies (18.1%), including Bayesian classifiers (n=10), and the Markov Model (n=3). When applied on the same dataset, PGMs show a relatively inferior performance to other ML models in most cases. Other aspects of explainability and transparency were not examined in these studies. Conclusions: Current studies suggest that the performance of probabilistic graphic models is relatively inferior to other ML methods. However, its explainability and transparency advantages make it a potentially viable method for several pediatric sepsis studies and applications.

Are you using the third definition to diagnose sepsis in clinic?-A survey among Chinese intensivists.

BACKGROUND: Since sepsis-3 definition is more accurate and sensitive than previous sepsis definition, implementation the newest diagnosis criteria could definitely bring more benefit to sepsis patients. This study was done to identify the level of current intensivists' knowledge regarding the third international consensus definitions for sepsis and septic shock and its implementation for the diagnosis of sepsis among Chinese adult intensive care units (ICUs). METHODS: A nationwide survey amongst critical care physicians was designed. The questionnaires measured the understanding and the frequency of diagnosis of sepsis and septic shock according to the third international consensus definitions for sepsis and septic shock. One thousand random physician members of Chinese Society of Critical Care Medicine were involved in the survey. A 5-point Likert scale (totally understand, partially understand, understand, hardly understand, do not understand) was used to elicit answers about the degree of understanding the sepsis-3 definition. The other 5-point Likert scale (always, often, sometimes, rarely, never) was used to elicit answers about the frequency of diagnosing sepsis according to the sepsis-3 definition. RESULTS: There were 59 (16.1%) intensivists who could completely understand the sepsis-3 definition. Less practiced intensivists could understand the sepsis-3 definition better than more practiced intensivists (P<0.001). Intensivists from university teaching hospitals understand the sepsis-3 definition better than the intensivists from the community hospitals (P<0.001). Intensivists from small-sized ICUs understand the sepsis-3 definition better than intensivists from big-sized ICUs (P<0.001). There were 60 (16.4%) intensivists who always diagnose sepsis according to the sepsis-3 definition since sepsis-3 published. Less practiced intensivists prefer using the sepsis-3 definition to diagnose sepsis compared with more practiced intensivists (P<0.001). Intensivists from university teaching hospitals prefer using the sepsis-3 definition to diagnose sepsis compared with the intensivists from the community hospitals (P<0.001). Intensivists from small-sized ICUs prefer adapting sepsis-3 definition to diagnosis sepsis compared with intensivists from big-sized ICUs (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In current China, the sepsis-3 definition is well understood and accepted by intensivists.

Recent advances in understanding and managing sepsis.

The last two to three years provided several "big steps" regarding our understanding and management of sepsis. The increasing insight into pathomechanisms of post-infectious defense led to some new models of host response. Besides hyper-, hypo-, and anti-inflammation as the traditional approaches to sepsis pathophysiology, tolerance and resilience were described as natural ways that organisms react to microbes. In parallel, huge data analyses confirmed these research insights with a new way to define sepsis and septic shock (called "Sepsis-3"), which led to discussions within the scientific community. In addition to these advances in understanding and defining the disease, follow-up protocols of the initial "sepsis bundles" from the Surviving Sepsis Campaign were created; some of them were part of quality management studies by clinicians, and some were in the form of mandatory procedures. As a result, new "bundles" were initiated with the goal of enabling standardized management of sepsis and septic shock, especially in the very early phase. This short commentary provides a brief overview of these two major fields as recent hallmarks of sepsis research.

Much Ado About the New Definitions of Sepsis.

Following the publication of the new definition of sepsis (Sepsis-3), a plethora of articles have been published in medical journals. Recognizing the epidemiological importance of the previous definitions, first issued in 1992 (Sepsis-1), and subsequently revised in 2001 (Sepsis-2), the most recent opinion emphasizes the failure "to provide adequate groups of patients with homogenous aetiologies, presentations and outcomes", and blamed one of the causes "for the failure of several randomized controlled trials (RCTs), that tested the efficacy of adjuvant sepsis therapies". This review summarizes the recent advances in sepsis definition.