• Arvid W A Kamps, Nic J G M Veeger, and Sigrid M Heijsman.
• Department of Paediatrics arvidkamps@gmail.com.
• Respir Care. 2014 Nov 1;59(11):1710-5.

BackgroundWe sought to compare the accuracy of a newly developed childhood asthma score (CAS) with routine clinical assessment of respiratory status in children with acute asthma in predicting requirements for bronchodilator nebulization.MethodsIn this prospective observational study in children 2-18 y old with acute asthma, we evaluated the association between the CAS and routine clinical assessment as well as inter-rater agreement.ResultsThe need for bronchodilator nebulization was assessed during 134 episodes of acute asthma in 47 children. Overall, bronchodilators were administered after routine clinical assessment in 74 episodes (55.2%). The median CAS was 2.5 (interquartile range of 2.0-3.0) for subjects who did not receive nebulization and 6.0 (interquartile range of 4.0-7.0) for subjects who did receive nebulization (P < .001). A CAS cutoff score of 4 yielded a sensitivity of 0.91 (95% CI 0.84-0.97) and a specificity of 0.77 (95% CI 0.66-0.87), with a positive predictive value of 0.83 (95% CI 0.75-0.91) and a negative predictive value of 0.87 (95% CI 0.78-0.96). In 79 episodes, the CAS was assessed by 2 independent raters. With a weighted kappa of 0.77, a good inter-rater agreement was obtained.ConclusionsUsing a cutoff value of 4, the newly developed CAS accurately predicts the requirement for bronchodilator nebulization in children with acute asthma without use of auscultative findings.Copyright © 2014 by Daedalus Enterprises.

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