Barry et al reported a score for evaluating a patient with acute diarrhea for evidence of dehydration. The authors are from Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (Bangladesh), and University of Florida.
Patient selection: age > 5 years with acute diarrhea
Parameters:
(1) age of the patient in years
(2) sex
(3) eye level
(4) radial pulse
(5) respiration
(6) skin pinch
(7) vomiting episodes in 24 hours
Parameter
Finding
Points
age of the patient
> 59 years
0
20 to 59 years
1
< 20 years
2
sex
female
0
male
1
eye level
normal
0
sunken
1
radial pulse
strong
0
decreased
1
absent
2
respiration depth
normal
0
deep
1
skin pinch
rapid
0
slow
2
very slow
4
vomiting episodes
< 1 per 24 hours
0
1 to 10
1
> 10
2
total score =
= SUM(points for all of the parameters)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maximum score: 13
Total Score
Dehydration Status
0 to 3
no
4 to 6
some
7 to 13
severe
Performance:
• The area under the ROC curve for detecting any dehydration is 0.75.
• The area under the ROC curve for detecting severe dehydration ins 0.76.
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