Prognostic utility of the qSOFA scale in patients admitted to an Internal Medicine service due to infectious diseases

BACKGROUND Sepsis is a serious entity. Diagnosis and early treatment is important for the prognosis. AIM To analyze the prognostic utility of the qSOFA scale as a predictor of mortality in patients admitted by infection in an Internal Medicine Service and describe its demographic characteristics and possible association with mortalilty. METHODS Descriptive and cross-sectional study of patients admitted with diagnosis of acute infection at the General Hospital of Castellon (Spain) from November 2017 to February 2018. INCLUSION CRITERIA patients admitted on suspicion of an infectious process. Main dependent variable: mortality. Independent main variable: qSOFA scale. Secondary variables: time until the first medical evaluation and the start of empirical antibiotic therapy, demographic characteristics of the patient, analytics and evolutional. RESULTS A total of 311 patients were analyzed, 145 men with an average age of 78 (DE 16,23). Seventy five presented qSOFA ≥ 2. Higher mortality was observed in those patients with qSOFA ≥ 2 (36% vs 11%, p = 0.00). CONCLUSION In patients admitted with infectious diseases, a qSOFA value > = 2 was associated with higher mortality. Future studies are required to verify its potential diagnostic utility.