Sepsis death risk factor score based on systemic inflammatory response syndrome, quick sequential organ failure assessment, and comorbidities

Objective

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the death risk factors of patients included in the sepsis protocol bundle, using clinical data from qSOFA, SIRS, and comorbidities, as well as development of a mortality risk score.

Design

This retrospective cohort study was conducted between 2016 and 2021.

Setting

Two university hospitals in Brazil.

Participants

Patients with sepsis.

Interventions

Several clinical and laboratory data were collected focused on SIRS, qSOFA, and comorbidities.

Main variable of interest

In-hospital mortality was the primary outcome variable. A mortality risk score was developed after logistic regression analysis.

Results

A total of 1,808 patients were included with a death rate of 36%. Ten variables remained independent factors related to death in multivariate analysis: temperature ≥38 °C (odds ratio [OR] = 0.65), previous sepsis (OR = 1.42), qSOFA ≥ 2 (OR = 1.43), leukocytes >12,000 or <4,000 cells/mm³ (OR = 1.61), encephalic vascular accident (OR = 1.88), age >60 years (OR = 1.93), cancer (OR = 2.2), length of hospital stay before sepsis >7 days (OR = 2.22,), dialysis (OR = 2.51), and cirrhosis (OR = 3.97). Considering the equation of the binary regression logistic analysis, the score presented an area under curve of 0.668, is not a potential model for death prediction.

Conclusions

Several risk factors are independently associated with mortality, allowing the development of a prediction score based on qSOFA, SIRS, and comorbidities data, however, the performance of this score is low.