Journal of clinical epidemiology
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The objective of this study was to determine how well the Charlson index of comorbidity would predict mortality of critically ill patients; and how the predictive ability of the index would compare with that of the comorbidity component (Chronic Health Points) of the APACHE II system. This prospective cohort study included in its setting an intensive care unit (ICU) and intermediate ICU (IICU) in a teaching hospital. Patients included a previously assembled inception cohort of 201 patients consecutively admitted to either unit, followed until death or discharge from the hospital, excluding patients admitted after coronary artery bypass grafting, for planned dialysis, or transferred to the IICU from another intensive care unit. ⋯ The Chronic Health Points component of APACHE II had no significant discriminating ability (ROC area = 0.57, SE = 0.05), although the full APACHE II system was an excellent predictor (area = 0.87, SE = 0.04). Logistic regression analyses suggested that the Charlson index could contribute significant (p = 0.03) prognostic information to that obtained from the components of APACHE II other than Chronic Health, i.e., acute physiological derangement, age, and reason for admission, but the Chronic Health Points component of APACHE II could not so contribute to the rest of APACHE II (p = 0.19). Our conclusion is that use of the detailed information about comorbidity captured by the Charlson index could improve prognostic predictions even for critically ill patients.
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The Glasgow Coma Scale is a commonly used instrument in clinical practice. This article examines the published evidence to assess whether the scale possesses the requisite clinimetric properties. Articles describing and using the scale were located through a MEDLINE search. ⋯ Its predictive validity in traumatic coma, when combined with age and brainstem reflexes, is good in the generating sample (sensitivity, 79 to 97%; specificity, 84-97%) but has not been tested in an external validation sample. Its longitudinal construct validity has not been studied adequately. Thus, the scale is an established discriminative instrument but its validity as a predictive and an evaluative instrument has not yet been studied adequately.