APACHE | The Journal of Critical Care Medicine

Introduction: Intermediate care units (IMCUs) serve as step-up units for emergency department patients and as step-down units for critically ill patients transferred from intensive care units. This study compares four critical illness scores for assessment of acutely ill patients and their accuracy in predicting mortality in patients admitted to IMCU.
Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study on patients aged ≥18 admitted to IMCU of Aga Khan University Hospital from 2017 to 2019. All patients admitted to IMCU from the emergency room were included in the study. Patient’s record were reviewed for demographic data, physiological and laboratory parameters. Critical illness scores were calculated from these variables for each patient.
Results: A total of 1192 patients were admitted to the IMCU, of which 923 (77.4%) medical records were finally analyzed. The mean (SD) age of participants was 62 years (± 16.5) and 469 (50.8%) were women. The overall hospital mortality rate of patients managed in IMCU was 6.4% (59/923 patients). The median scores of APACHE II, SOFA, SAPS II and MEWS were 16 (IQR 11–21), 4 (IQR 2–6), 36 (IQR 30–53) and 3 (IQR 2-4) points respectively. AUC for SAPS II was 0.763 (95% CI: 0.71-0.81), SOFA score was 0.735 (95% CI: 0.68-0.79) and MEWS score was 0.714 (95% CI: 0.66-0.77). The lowest ROC curve was 0.584 (95% CI: 0.52-0.64) for APACHE II.
Conclusion: In conclusion, our study found that SAPS II, followed by SOFA and MEWS scores, provided better discrimination in stratifying critical illness in patients admitted to IMCU of a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.

Introduction: The patient in critical condition, regardless of the cause of admission, continues to be a challenge for health systems due to the high mortality that it reports. There is a need to identify some marker of early obtaining, easy to interpret and with high relevance in the prognosis of these patients.
Objective: To determine the prognostic value of serum lactate in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Method: One hundred and forty-five patients admitted to an ICU were enrolled in the study. The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE) prognosis score, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, hemodynamic support need, mechanical ventilation, cause of admission, stay in ICU, analytical and physiological variables were determined. The probability of survival of patients who had elevated and normal serum lactate levels was calculated. The risk of dying was determined using the Cox regression model.
Results: Twenty-eight patients died (19%) in the ICU. The serum lactate value was higher in the group of patients with trauma, infections, APACHE II and high creatinine levels; as well as with decreased mean arterial blood pressure, need for hemodynamic support and mechanical ventilation. The survival capacity was higher in patients who had normal serum lactate. Serum lactate was the sole independent predictor of mortality (AHR 1.28 [1.07-1.53], p = 0.008).
Conclusions: Patient assessment through the determination of serum lactate levels provides useful information in the initial evaluation of the critical patient.