BACKGROUND:Sepsis is one of the main causes of mortality in intensive care units(ICUs).Early prediction is critical for reducing injury.As approximately 36%of sepsis occur within 24 h after emergency department(ED)adm...BACKGROUND:Sepsis is one of the main causes of mortality in intensive care units(ICUs).Early prediction is critical for reducing injury.As approximately 36%of sepsis occur within 24 h after emergency department(ED)admission in Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care(MIMIC-IV),a prediction system for the ED triage stage would be helpful.Previous methods such as the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment(qSOFA)are more suitable for screening than for prediction in the ED,and we aimed to fi nd a light-weight,convenient prediction method through machine learning.METHODS:We accessed the MIMIC-IV for sepsis patient data in the EDs.Our dataset comprised demographic information,vital signs,and synthetic features.Extreme Gradient Boosting(XGBoost)was used to predict the risk of developing sepsis within 24 h after ED admission.Additionally,SHapley Additive exPlanations(SHAP)was employed to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the model's results.Ten percent of the patients were randomly selected as the testing set,while the remaining patients were used for training with 10-fold cross-validation.RESULTS:For 10-fold cross-validation on 14,957 samples,we reached an accuracy of 84.1%±0.3%and an area under the receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve of 0.92±0.02.The model achieved similar performance on the testing set of 1,662 patients.SHAP values showed that the fi ve most important features were acuity,arrival transportation,age,shock index,and respiratory rate.CONCLUSION:Machine learning models such as XGBoost may be used for sepsis prediction using only a small amount of data conveniently collected in the ED triage stage.This may help reduce workload in the ED and warn medical workers against the risk of sepsis in advance.展开更多
BACKGROUND:This study aimed to evaluate the discriminatory performance of 11 vital sign-based early warning scores(EWSs)and three shock indices in early sepsis prediction in the emergency department(ED).METHODS:We per...BACKGROUND:This study aimed to evaluate the discriminatory performance of 11 vital sign-based early warning scores(EWSs)and three shock indices in early sepsis prediction in the emergency department(ED).METHODS:We performed a retrospective study on consecutive adult patients with an infection over 3 months in a public ED in Hong Kong.The primary outcome was sepsis(Sepsis-3 definition)within 48 h of ED presentation.Using c-statistics and the DeLong test,we compared 11 EWSs,including the National Early Warning Score 2(NEWS2),Modified Early Warning Score,and Worthing Physiological Scoring System(WPS),etc.,and three shock indices(the shock index[SI],modified shock index[MSI],and diastolic shock index[DSI]),with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome(SIRS)and quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment(qSOFA)in predicting the primary outcome,intensive care unit admission,and mortality at different time points.RESULTS:We analyzed 601 patients,of whom 166(27.6%)developed sepsis.NEWS2 had the highest point estimate(area under the receiver operating characteristic curve[AUROC]0.75,95%CI 0.70-0.79)and was significantly better than SIRS,qSOFA,other EWSs and shock indices,except WPS,at predicting the primary outcome.However,the pooled sensitivity and specificity of NEWS2≥5 for the prediction of sepsis were 0.45(95%CI 0.37-0.52)and 0.88(95%CI 0.85-0.91),respectively.The discriminatory performance of all EWSs and shock indices declined when used to predict mortality at a more remote time point.CONCLUSION:NEWS2 compared favorably with other EWSs and shock indices in early sepsis prediction but its low sensitivity at the usual cut-off point requires further modification for sepsis screening.展开更多
BACKGROUND: Timely identifi cation of high blood lactate levels in septic patients may allow faster detection of those patients requiring immediate resuscitation. Point-of-care(POC) testing is being increasingly utili...BACKGROUND: Timely identifi cation of high blood lactate levels in septic patients may allow faster detection of those patients requiring immediate resuscitation. Point-of-care(POC) testing is being increasingly utilized in the emergency department(ED). We examined the accuracy and timesaving effect of a handheld POC lactate device for the measurement of fingertip and whole blood lactate as compared with reference laboratory blood testing in septic ED patients.METHODS: A convenience sample of adult ED patients receiving serum lactate testing were enrolled prospectively in the ED of a multidisciplinary tertiary care hospital serving the population of one of the major cities of Pakistan. Participants underwent fi ngertip POC lactate measurement with a portable device and simultaneous whole blood sampling for analysis by both the POC lactate device and standard laboratory method. Lactate measurements were compared by intraclass correlation(ICC) and Bland and Altman plots.RESULTS: Forty-three septic patients were included in the study. The fingertip POC & whole blood POC lactate measurements each correlated tightly with the reference method(ICC=0.93 & ICC=0.92, respectively). Similarly at 6 hours, the fingertip POC & whole blood POC lactate measurements demonstrated satisfactory correlation with the reference method(ICC=0.95 & ICC=0.97, respectively).CONCLUSION: Fingertip POC lactate measurement is an accurate method to determine lactate levels in septic ED patients.KEY WORDS: Sepsis; Point of care; Lactate; Emergency department;展开更多
Objective: To determine and compare the diagnostic efficiency of various biomarkers [C-reactive protein, neutrophil percentage, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLCR), lactate, procalcitonin, blood culture] in the identif...Objective: To determine and compare the diagnostic efficiency of various biomarkers [C-reactive protein, neutrophil percentage, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLCR), lactate, procalcitonin, blood culture] in the identification of septic patients in emergency department (ED), and to assess the predictive value of combination of markers. Methods: This was a prospective, single centre study conducted in the ED of an urban, tertiary care hospital. We included patients who were admitted to the ED with symptoms of a possible infection. Blood cultures and serum measurement of the biomarkers were collected from 131 patients. Patients were determined to be septic or non-septic, based on the systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria and the diagnosis was made at the ED. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and area under curves (AUC) were calculated. Results: A total of 126 patients, 61 with sepsis and 65 without sepsis were eventually included in the study. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio displayed the highest accuracy in diagnosing sepsis (AUC 0.735, 95% CI=0648-0.822, P<0.001). The best combination of markers in predicting sepsis was NLCR and white blood cell (AUC: 0.801, 95% CI=0.724-0.878, P<0.001). Conclusions: The results of this small study showed that NLCR outperforms other markers in diagnosing sepsis in ED. It is readily available, cost efficient, non invasive and independent. It may be insufficient to rely on this single marker to diagnose sepsis, so some other diagnostic utilities should be taken into account as one part of the overall assessment. Our study also showed that combination of NLCR and white blood cell provides the highest diagnostic accuracy. More large scale studies across different population groups will be needed to confirm this finding.展开更多
BACKGROUND:To evaluate the accuracy of National Early Warning Score(NEWS)in predicting clinical outcomes(28-day mortality,intensive care unit[ICU]admission,and mechanical ventilation use)for septic patients with commu...BACKGROUND:To evaluate the accuracy of National Early Warning Score(NEWS)in predicting clinical outcomes(28-day mortality,intensive care unit[ICU]admission,and mechanical ventilation use)for septic patients with community-acquired pneumonia(CAP)compared with other commonly used severity scores(CURB65,Pneumonia Severity Index[PSI],Sequential Organ Failure Assessment[SOFA],quick SOFA[qSOFA],and Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis[MEDS])and admission lactate level.METHODS:Adult patients diagnosed with CAP admitted between January 2017 and May 2019 with admission SOFA≥2 from baseline were enrolled.Demographic characteristics were collected.The primary outcome was the 28-day mortality after admission,and the secondary outcome included ICU admission and mechanical ventilation use.Outcome prediction value of parameters above was compared using receiver operating characteristics(ROC)curves.Cox regression analyses were carried out to determine the risk factors for the 28-day mortality.Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted and compared using optimal cut-off values of qSOFA and NEWS.RESULTS:Among the 340 enrolled patients,90 patients were dead after a 28-day follow-up,62 patients were admitted to ICU,and 84 patients underwent mechanical ventilation.Among single predictors,NEWS achieved the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic(AUROC)curve in predicting the 28-day mortality(0.861),ICU admission(0.895),and use of mechanical ventilation(0.873).NEWS+lactate,similar to MEDS+lactate,outperformed other combinations of severity score and admission lactate in predicting the 28-day mortality(AUROC 0.866)and ICU admission(AUROC 0.905),while NEWS+lactate did not outperform other combinations in predicting mechanical ventilation(AUROC 0.886).Admission lactate only improved the predicting performance of CURB65 and qSOFA in predicting the 28-day mortality and ICU admission.CONCLUSIONS:NEWS could be a valuable predictor in septic patients with CAP in emergency departments.Admission lactate did not predict well the outcomes or improve the severity scores.A qSOFA≥2 and a NEWS≥9 were strongly associated with the 28-day mortality,ICU admission,and mechanical ventilation of septic patients with CAP in the emergency departments.展开更多
We set out to overcome barriers previously shown to impede sepsis therapy. Application of a universally standardized therapy model is an ongoing controversy. By taking advantage of the novel and adaptable aspects of a...We set out to overcome barriers previously shown to impede sepsis therapy. Application of a universally standardized therapy model is an ongoing controversy. By taking advantage of the novel and adaptable aspects of a new technology, we predict that the introduction of an electronic health record based sepsis identification tool in the emergency department will aid clinicians in earlier implementation of sepsis directed therapy, namely intravenous fluids and antibiotics. A retrospective cohort study of 3,076 patients with the diagnosis of sepsis was performed. Patient charts were identified for this study who met the criteria of: _〉 18 years old; emergency department evaluation; ICD-9 code of sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock. Data was divided into two treatment groups, pre- and post-best practice advisory (BPA) sepsis identification tool. Our primary outcome was time to intravenous fluids and time to antibiotics administration. The secondary outcome of in-patient all-cause mortality was measured. 1,266 patients were treated prior to, and 1,810 treated after, the BPA implementation with a decrease in time to intravenous fluids from 34% to 49.9% of patient receiving treatment in the first 60 min of emergency department arrival (difference of 15.9%; P 〈 0.05). The time to administration of antibiotics in the first 180 min of arrival improved from 40.3% to 56.8% (difference of 16.5%; P 〈 0.05). Secondarily, we found that in-patient mortality improved from 10.5% to 7.5%, pre- and post BPA respectively (difference of 3%; P 〈 0.05). Our study has demonstrated that the implementation of an active electronic health record screen tool that alerts clinicians to the possibility of sepsis may improve the time to initiate fluid blouses and antibiotics, and may lead to improved outcomes.展开更多
Purpose:Sepsis is a common acute life-threatening condition that emergency physicians routinely face.Diagnostic options within the Emergency Department(ED)are limited due to lack of infrastructure,consequently limitin...Purpose:Sepsis is a common acute life-threatening condition that emergency physicians routinely face.Diagnostic options within the Emergency Department(ED)are limited due to lack of infrastructure,consequently limiting the use of invasive hemodynamic monitoring or imaging tests.The mortality rate due to sepsis can be assessed via multiple scoring systems,for example,mortality in emergency department sepsis(MEDS)score and sepsis patient evaluation in the emergency department(SPEED)score,both of which quantify the variation of mortality rates according to clinical findings,laboratory data,or therapeutic interventions.This study aims to improve the management processes of sepsis patients by comparing SPEED score and MEDS score for predicting the 28-day mortality in cases of emergency sepsis.Methods:The study is a cross-sectional,prospective study including 61 sepsis patients in ED in Suez Canal University Hospital,Egypt,from August 2017 to June 2018.Patients were selected by two steps:(1)suspected septic patients presenting with at least one of the following abnormal clinical findings:(a)body temperature higher than 38℃ or lower than 36℃,(b)heart rate higher than 90 beats/min,(c)hyperventilation evidenced by respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths/min or PaCO2 lower than 32 mmHg,and(d)white blood cell count higher than 12,000/μL or lower than 4000/μL;(2)confirmed septic patients with at least a 2-point increase from the baseline total sequential organ failure assessment(SOFA)score following infection.Other inclusion criteria included adult patients with an age≥18 years regardless of gender and those who had either systemic inflammatory response syndrome or suspected/confirmed infection.Patients were shortly follow-up for the 28-day mortality.Each patient was subject to SPEED score and MEDS score and then the results were compared to detect which of them was more effective in predicting outcome.The receiver operating characteristic curves were also done for MEDS and SPEED scores.Results:Among the 61 patients,41 died with the mortality rate of 67.2%.The mortality rate increased with a higher SPEED and MEDS scores.Both SPEED and MEDS scores revealed significant difference between the survivors and nonsurvivors(p=0.004 and p<0.001,respectively),indicating that both the two systems are effective in predicting the 28-day mortality of sepsis patients.Thereafter,the receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted,which showed that SPEED was better than the MEDS score when applied to the complete study population with an area under the curve being 0.87(0.788-0.963)as compared with 0.75(0.634-0.876)for MEDS.Logistic regression analysis revealed that the best fitting predictor of 28-day mortality for sepsis patients was the SPEED scoring system.For every one unit increase in SPEED score,the odds of 28-day mortality increased by 37%.Conclusion:SPEED score is more useful and accurate than MEDS score in predicting the 28-day mortality among sepsis patients.Therefore SPEED rather than MEDS should be more widely used in the ED for sepsis patients.展开更多
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2021YFC2500803)the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences(2021-I2M-1-056).
文摘BACKGROUND:Sepsis is one of the main causes of mortality in intensive care units(ICUs).Early prediction is critical for reducing injury.As approximately 36%of sepsis occur within 24 h after emergency department(ED)admission in Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care(MIMIC-IV),a prediction system for the ED triage stage would be helpful.Previous methods such as the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment(qSOFA)are more suitable for screening than for prediction in the ED,and we aimed to fi nd a light-weight,convenient prediction method through machine learning.METHODS:We accessed the MIMIC-IV for sepsis patient data in the EDs.Our dataset comprised demographic information,vital signs,and synthetic features.Extreme Gradient Boosting(XGBoost)was used to predict the risk of developing sepsis within 24 h after ED admission.Additionally,SHapley Additive exPlanations(SHAP)was employed to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the model's results.Ten percent of the patients were randomly selected as the testing set,while the remaining patients were used for training with 10-fold cross-validation.RESULTS:For 10-fold cross-validation on 14,957 samples,we reached an accuracy of 84.1%±0.3%and an area under the receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve of 0.92±0.02.The model achieved similar performance on the testing set of 1,662 patients.SHAP values showed that the fi ve most important features were acuity,arrival transportation,age,shock index,and respiratory rate.CONCLUSION:Machine learning models such as XGBoost may be used for sepsis prediction using only a small amount of data conveniently collected in the ED triage stage.This may help reduce workload in the ED and warn medical workers against the risk of sepsis in advance.
基金supported by the Health and Medical Research Fund of the Food and Health Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(Project No.19201161)Seed Fund from the University of Hong Kong.
文摘BACKGROUND:This study aimed to evaluate the discriminatory performance of 11 vital sign-based early warning scores(EWSs)and three shock indices in early sepsis prediction in the emergency department(ED).METHODS:We performed a retrospective study on consecutive adult patients with an infection over 3 months in a public ED in Hong Kong.The primary outcome was sepsis(Sepsis-3 definition)within 48 h of ED presentation.Using c-statistics and the DeLong test,we compared 11 EWSs,including the National Early Warning Score 2(NEWS2),Modified Early Warning Score,and Worthing Physiological Scoring System(WPS),etc.,and three shock indices(the shock index[SI],modified shock index[MSI],and diastolic shock index[DSI]),with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome(SIRS)and quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment(qSOFA)in predicting the primary outcome,intensive care unit admission,and mortality at different time points.RESULTS:We analyzed 601 patients,of whom 166(27.6%)developed sepsis.NEWS2 had the highest point estimate(area under the receiver operating characteristic curve[AUROC]0.75,95%CI 0.70-0.79)and was significantly better than SIRS,qSOFA,other EWSs and shock indices,except WPS,at predicting the primary outcome.However,the pooled sensitivity and specificity of NEWS2≥5 for the prediction of sepsis were 0.45(95%CI 0.37-0.52)and 0.88(95%CI 0.85-0.91),respectively.The discriminatory performance of all EWSs and shock indices declined when used to predict mortality at a more remote time point.CONCLUSION:NEWS2 compared favorably with other EWSs and shock indices in early sepsis prediction but its low sensitivity at the usual cut-off point requires further modification for sepsis screening.
文摘BACKGROUND: Timely identifi cation of high blood lactate levels in septic patients may allow faster detection of those patients requiring immediate resuscitation. Point-of-care(POC) testing is being increasingly utilized in the emergency department(ED). We examined the accuracy and timesaving effect of a handheld POC lactate device for the measurement of fingertip and whole blood lactate as compared with reference laboratory blood testing in septic ED patients.METHODS: A convenience sample of adult ED patients receiving serum lactate testing were enrolled prospectively in the ED of a multidisciplinary tertiary care hospital serving the population of one of the major cities of Pakistan. Participants underwent fi ngertip POC lactate measurement with a portable device and simultaneous whole blood sampling for analysis by both the POC lactate device and standard laboratory method. Lactate measurements were compared by intraclass correlation(ICC) and Bland and Altman plots.RESULTS: Forty-three septic patients were included in the study. The fingertip POC & whole blood POC lactate measurements each correlated tightly with the reference method(ICC=0.93 & ICC=0.92, respectively). Similarly at 6 hours, the fingertip POC & whole blood POC lactate measurements demonstrated satisfactory correlation with the reference method(ICC=0.95 & ICC=0.97, respectively).CONCLUSION: Fingertip POC lactate measurement is an accurate method to determine lactate levels in septic ED patients.KEY WORDS: Sepsis; Point of care; Lactate; Emergency department;
文摘Objective: To determine and compare the diagnostic efficiency of various biomarkers [C-reactive protein, neutrophil percentage, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLCR), lactate, procalcitonin, blood culture] in the identification of septic patients in emergency department (ED), and to assess the predictive value of combination of markers. Methods: This was a prospective, single centre study conducted in the ED of an urban, tertiary care hospital. We included patients who were admitted to the ED with symptoms of a possible infection. Blood cultures and serum measurement of the biomarkers were collected from 131 patients. Patients were determined to be septic or non-septic, based on the systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria and the diagnosis was made at the ED. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and area under curves (AUC) were calculated. Results: A total of 126 patients, 61 with sepsis and 65 without sepsis were eventually included in the study. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio displayed the highest accuracy in diagnosing sepsis (AUC 0.735, 95% CI=0648-0.822, P<0.001). The best combination of markers in predicting sepsis was NLCR and white blood cell (AUC: 0.801, 95% CI=0.724-0.878, P<0.001). Conclusions: The results of this small study showed that NLCR outperforms other markers in diagnosing sepsis in ED. It is readily available, cost efficient, non invasive and independent. It may be insufficient to rely on this single marker to diagnose sepsis, so some other diagnostic utilities should be taken into account as one part of the overall assessment. Our study also showed that combination of NLCR and white blood cell provides the highest diagnostic accuracy. More large scale studies across different population groups will be needed to confirm this finding.
基金Capital Clinical Characteristic Application Research of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Z171100001017057).
文摘BACKGROUND:To evaluate the accuracy of National Early Warning Score(NEWS)in predicting clinical outcomes(28-day mortality,intensive care unit[ICU]admission,and mechanical ventilation use)for septic patients with community-acquired pneumonia(CAP)compared with other commonly used severity scores(CURB65,Pneumonia Severity Index[PSI],Sequential Organ Failure Assessment[SOFA],quick SOFA[qSOFA],and Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis[MEDS])and admission lactate level.METHODS:Adult patients diagnosed with CAP admitted between January 2017 and May 2019 with admission SOFA≥2 from baseline were enrolled.Demographic characteristics were collected.The primary outcome was the 28-day mortality after admission,and the secondary outcome included ICU admission and mechanical ventilation use.Outcome prediction value of parameters above was compared using receiver operating characteristics(ROC)curves.Cox regression analyses were carried out to determine the risk factors for the 28-day mortality.Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted and compared using optimal cut-off values of qSOFA and NEWS.RESULTS:Among the 340 enrolled patients,90 patients were dead after a 28-day follow-up,62 patients were admitted to ICU,and 84 patients underwent mechanical ventilation.Among single predictors,NEWS achieved the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic(AUROC)curve in predicting the 28-day mortality(0.861),ICU admission(0.895),and use of mechanical ventilation(0.873).NEWS+lactate,similar to MEDS+lactate,outperformed other combinations of severity score and admission lactate in predicting the 28-day mortality(AUROC 0.866)and ICU admission(AUROC 0.905),while NEWS+lactate did not outperform other combinations in predicting mechanical ventilation(AUROC 0.886).Admission lactate only improved the predicting performance of CURB65 and qSOFA in predicting the 28-day mortality and ICU admission.CONCLUSIONS:NEWS could be a valuable predictor in septic patients with CAP in emergency departments.Admission lactate did not predict well the outcomes or improve the severity scores.A qSOFA≥2 and a NEWS≥9 were strongly associated with the 28-day mortality,ICU admission,and mechanical ventilation of septic patients with CAP in the emergency departments.
文摘We set out to overcome barriers previously shown to impede sepsis therapy. Application of a universally standardized therapy model is an ongoing controversy. By taking advantage of the novel and adaptable aspects of a new technology, we predict that the introduction of an electronic health record based sepsis identification tool in the emergency department will aid clinicians in earlier implementation of sepsis directed therapy, namely intravenous fluids and antibiotics. A retrospective cohort study of 3,076 patients with the diagnosis of sepsis was performed. Patient charts were identified for this study who met the criteria of: _〉 18 years old; emergency department evaluation; ICD-9 code of sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock. Data was divided into two treatment groups, pre- and post-best practice advisory (BPA) sepsis identification tool. Our primary outcome was time to intravenous fluids and time to antibiotics administration. The secondary outcome of in-patient all-cause mortality was measured. 1,266 patients were treated prior to, and 1,810 treated after, the BPA implementation with a decrease in time to intravenous fluids from 34% to 49.9% of patient receiving treatment in the first 60 min of emergency department arrival (difference of 15.9%; P 〈 0.05). The time to administration of antibiotics in the first 180 min of arrival improved from 40.3% to 56.8% (difference of 16.5%; P 〈 0.05). Secondarily, we found that in-patient mortality improved from 10.5% to 7.5%, pre- and post BPA respectively (difference of 3%; P 〈 0.05). Our study has demonstrated that the implementation of an active electronic health record screen tool that alerts clinicians to the possibility of sepsis may improve the time to initiate fluid blouses and antibiotics, and may lead to improved outcomes.
文摘Purpose:Sepsis is a common acute life-threatening condition that emergency physicians routinely face.Diagnostic options within the Emergency Department(ED)are limited due to lack of infrastructure,consequently limiting the use of invasive hemodynamic monitoring or imaging tests.The mortality rate due to sepsis can be assessed via multiple scoring systems,for example,mortality in emergency department sepsis(MEDS)score and sepsis patient evaluation in the emergency department(SPEED)score,both of which quantify the variation of mortality rates according to clinical findings,laboratory data,or therapeutic interventions.This study aims to improve the management processes of sepsis patients by comparing SPEED score and MEDS score for predicting the 28-day mortality in cases of emergency sepsis.Methods:The study is a cross-sectional,prospective study including 61 sepsis patients in ED in Suez Canal University Hospital,Egypt,from August 2017 to June 2018.Patients were selected by two steps:(1)suspected septic patients presenting with at least one of the following abnormal clinical findings:(a)body temperature higher than 38℃ or lower than 36℃,(b)heart rate higher than 90 beats/min,(c)hyperventilation evidenced by respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths/min or PaCO2 lower than 32 mmHg,and(d)white blood cell count higher than 12,000/μL or lower than 4000/μL;(2)confirmed septic patients with at least a 2-point increase from the baseline total sequential organ failure assessment(SOFA)score following infection.Other inclusion criteria included adult patients with an age≥18 years regardless of gender and those who had either systemic inflammatory response syndrome or suspected/confirmed infection.Patients were shortly follow-up for the 28-day mortality.Each patient was subject to SPEED score and MEDS score and then the results were compared to detect which of them was more effective in predicting outcome.The receiver operating characteristic curves were also done for MEDS and SPEED scores.Results:Among the 61 patients,41 died with the mortality rate of 67.2%.The mortality rate increased with a higher SPEED and MEDS scores.Both SPEED and MEDS scores revealed significant difference between the survivors and nonsurvivors(p=0.004 and p<0.001,respectively),indicating that both the two systems are effective in predicting the 28-day mortality of sepsis patients.Thereafter,the receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted,which showed that SPEED was better than the MEDS score when applied to the complete study population with an area under the curve being 0.87(0.788-0.963)as compared with 0.75(0.634-0.876)for MEDS.Logistic regression analysis revealed that the best fitting predictor of 28-day mortality for sepsis patients was the SPEED scoring system.For every one unit increase in SPEED score,the odds of 28-day mortality increased by 37%.Conclusion:SPEED score is more useful and accurate than MEDS score in predicting the 28-day mortality among sepsis patients.Therefore SPEED rather than MEDS should be more widely used in the ED for sepsis patients.