Advanced Pneumonia Prognostication: Superior Performance of NEWS2 over CURB-65 and SMART-COP
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Abstract
National Early Warning Score 2 has gained popularity in recent years due to its simple and rapid application. Through this study, we aimed to compare NEWS2 with SMART-COP and CURB65 as a predictor of mortality in community acquired pneumonia patients. A total of 116 patients with a mean age of 46.9±20.5 years were taken through non-probability convenience sampling in six months duration in 2020 at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan. Patients with pneumonia secondary to aspiration or hospital acquired, COVID19 patients, Koch’s and pulmonary oedema or embolism were all excluded. Forty five (38.8%) mortalities were recorded for which NEWS2 was 97.8% sensitive in predicting it but only 15.5% specific. While CURB65 was 46.7% sensitive and 71.8% specific, making it a poor predictor of true positives. However, SMART-COP showed reasonable sensitivity and specificity of 68.9% and 66.2% respectively, making NEWS2 the most sensitive scoring system among all three for patients with CAP.
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