The British Thoracic Society (BTS) developed a rule for identifying patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia who are at increased risk for mortality. These patients might benefit from more aggressive or intensive therapy.
Criteria - 2 of the following:
(1) admission respiratory rate >= 30 breaths per minute
(2) admission diastolic blood pressure <= 60 mm Hg
(3) urea > 7 mmol/L during the admission
Performance:
• Patients meeting the criteria had a 21-fold increase in risk of death in the BTS series.
• Farr et al found that the rule had a sensitivity of 70%, specificity of 84.2%, positive predictive value of 28.6%, negative predictive value of 96.9% and an overall accuracy of 82.3% for patients admitted to the University of Virginia hospital.
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