Comparative study of the performance of SOFA and qSOFA versus SIRS criteria for predicting mortality among septic patients admitted to the intensive care unit

Abstract

Sepsis is considered one of a life-threatening condition among intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Although, there are evidence-based management guidelines, sepsis still remains a leading cause of death with in-hospital mortality ranging from 22.8% to 48.7% (Seymour et al., 2017). Previously sepsis was defined as systemic inflammatory response to infection, which could be diagnosed by meeting two or more Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) criteria, along with a known or suspected infection (Abe et al., 2020). Even though the SIRS criteria were sensitive, but they were not specific enough to differentiate between sepsis and other inflammatory conditions. (SOFA score), sepsis-related organ failure assessment score, also known as sequential organ failure assessment score,is used to track a person's status during the stay in an intensive care unit (ICU) to determine the extent of a person's organ function or rate of failure. The score is based on six different scores, one each for the respiratory, cardiovascular, hepatic, coagulation, renal and neurological systems (Vincent et al., 1996).