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heart score

barthel index

What is Barthel Index and What is it Used For

Hospitals across the United States report approximately five hundred thousand patients with various bloodstream infections (BSI) every year. 75,000 of these patients die of the infection eventually. The patients who end up dying mainly include those who are at a higher risk of mortality but do not get the treatment timely. Therefore, the need for a method that can identify the risk of mortality in patients with BSI originated. 

Multiple scoring systems or severity indexes, including Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS), Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA), and APACHE II score, have been utilized by health professionals to identify the risk of mortality in the patients with BSI. Each of these brings certain advantages and disadvantages to clinical decision-making. But the advent of Pitt Bacteremia Score outperformed all these scoring systems and severity indexes. 

What is Pitt Bacteremia Score? 

Pitt Bacteremia Score is one among many scoring systems or severity indexes that are utilized in healthcare around the world to check the impact of the illness and predict the risk of mortality in patients with bloodstream infections. However, unlike most scoring systems that are complex, the Pitt Bacteremia Score is simple and easy to use. It is widely used by health professionals as the severity of acute illness index to know the risk of mortality in patients with bloodstream infections with more accuracy and efficiency. 

Parameters Of Pitt Bacteremia Score 

Five parameters are used for determining the risk of mortality in the patients with BSI using the Pitt Bacteremia Score calculator. Those include:

Body Temperature

Hypotension

Mechanical Ventilation

Cardiac Arrest 

Mental Status 

Each of these is given a score of either 0-2 or 0-4. The scores are given based on the following method. 

For Body Temperature 

For Body Temperature 

S.N

Temperature

Score

1

35°C or Below

2

2

35.1°C to 36°C

1

3

36.1°C to 38.9°C

04

39°C to 39.9°C

1

5

40°C or Above

2

For Hypotension 

If the patient has low blood pressure, a score of 2 is given while in the absence of low blood pressure, patients receive a score of 0. 

For Mechanical Ventilation 

If the patient is receiving intravenous (IV) vasopressors, a score of 2 will be given to the patient while the absence of the same will lead the physicians to give no score. 

For Cardiac Arrest 

In the case of cardiac arrest, patients receive 2 scores while the patients with no past and present cardiac arrest obtain no score. 

For Mental Status

S.N.

Mental Status

Score

1

Alert

02

Disoriented

1

3

Stuporous

2

4

Comatose

4

Calculation of Risk of Mortality Score

The final risk of mortality score in BSI patients is calculated by adding the scores given to each parameter. The minimum and maximum score that patients can obtain is 0 and 14 respectively. A score of 4 or above indicates a higher risk of mortality within 14 days. 

To calculate the risk of mortality score, you do not necessarily need assistance from a physician, you can calculate it on your own using a Pitt Bacteremia Score calculator. 

Effectiveness of PBS For Other Infectious Diseases 

PBS is best known as a risk of mortality predictor for patients with bloodstream infections. However, many studies have been conducted so far to see the effectiveness and ability to predict the risk of mortality of PBS for other infectious diseases as well. Studies that were associated with nonbacteremia CRE infections found optimistic results which means PBS can predict the risk of mortality score for many nonbacteremia CRE infections accurately.