Risk-stratification of Emergency Department Suspected Sepsis (REDS) Score Versus Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) Score to Predict Mortality in Patients With Suspected Sepsis

Sepsis is a life threatening condition and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in emergency department worldwide.Patients at high-risk of death may be identified by using an evidence based risk-stratification score. The ED is a busy and hard environment and any score that is used should be easy to calculate using readily available variables. The objective criteria defining sepsis, a minimum two-point increase as in qSoFA score .

The REDS (Risk-stratification of Emergency Department suspected Sepsis) score is a tool used to assess the risk of mortality in patients with suspected sepsis in the emergency department. It combines several factors including age, altered mental state, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure, serum albumin, INR, lactate levels, and refractory hypotension. A score of 3 or more is considered high-risk. Our goal in this work is to compare the predictive accuracy of the REDS score versus qSOFA in identifying in-hospital mortality among ED patients with suspected sepsis and improving outcomes in ED patients.

The REDS score includes the following variables, each assigned a point value:

Age: ≥ 65 years old (1 point) Altered Mental State: (1 point) Respiratory Rate: ≥ 22 breaths/min (1 point) Systolic Blood Pressure: ≤ 100 mm Hg (1 point) Serum Albumin: ≤ 27 g/L (1 point) INR: ≥ 1.3 (1 point) Lactate: 2.1-3.9 mmol/L (1 point), ≥ 4 mmol/L (3 points) Refractory Hypotension: (2 points for lactate ≤ 2 mmol/L, 3 points for lactate >2 mmol/L)

Interpreting the REDS score: