Comparison of QSOFA Score and SIRS Criteria for the Prediction of Sepsis Outcome in Patients with a Suspected Bacterial Infection outside the Intensive Care Unit in the North of Iran

Backgrounds: The present study aimed to determine the quick Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score in comparison with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria to predict adverse consequences of a suspected bacterial infection in patients outside the intensive care unit (ICU). Materials Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on patients during March 2018 to March 2019. All hospitalized patients with this suspected infection were positive for both SIRS and microbial cultures. Demographic and laboratory variables were recorded for all patients to determine the presence and time of various components of both SIRS criteria and the qSOFA score. Findings: Out of 128 patients with suspected sepsis, 87 (68%) patients were confirmed to have septicemia based on SIRS criteria. SIRS criteria classified 68% of patients in the sepsis group (87 of 128), of which 39(44.8%) had a positive qSOFA score. The sensitivity and specificity ratios of qSOFA were 44.83 and 80.49%, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis results showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of pSOFA scores for predicting sepsis patients was not significantly different. Moreover, regarding the sepsis-related mortality, the area under ROC showed that qSOFA criteria (score≥ 2) were able to predict mortality in patients with 71% sensitivity and 72% specificity. Conclusion: This study findings revealed that the qSOFA score was significantly efficient in predicting mortality. However, SIRS criteria were more sensitive than the qSOFA score in predicting the definitive diagnosis of sepsis. Therefore, the qSOFA score seems to be an invaluable tool for predicting outcome in sepsis patients.