Prognostic value of Pneumonia Severity Index, CURB-65, CRB-65, and procalcitonin in community-acquired pneumonia in Singapore

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of three severity scoring tools and procalcitonin (PCT) in severity stratification and mortality prediction among patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in Singapore. Methods: The method used was a retrospective observational study of all the consecutive patients with CAP admitted through the emergency department of Singapore General Hospital between 2012-2013. Results: Among 1902 study subjects, the overall 30-day mortality was 15.7%. The mortality rates for Pneumonia Severity Index (PSI) class I-III were 0, 0, and 3.7%, which were comparable to the original published data. CURB-65 and CRB-65 had higher mortality rates in all severity levels. In three levels of risk stratification, the low risk group of PSI (class I-III) included 42.6% of the patients with mortality rate of 1.9%, whereas the low risk group defined by CURB-65 (score 0-1) and CRB-65 (score 0) included 52.0% and 24.4% of the patients with higher mortality rates (7.3% and 4.5% respectively). PSI was the most sensitive in mortality prediction with area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.82, higher than CURB- 65 (0.71), CRB-65 (0.67), and PCT (0.63) (p<0.001). The initial level of PCT was higher in non-survivors and intensive care unit (ICU)-admitted patients compared to survivors (0.91 vs 0.36 ng/ml, p<0.001) and non-ICU patients (3.70 vs 0.38 ng/ml, p<0.001). Incorporating PCT did not improve the discriminatory power of the scoring tools for mortality prediction. Conclusions: PSI was a reliable tool for severity stratification and morality prediction among the patients with CAP in Singapore.