Introduction. Sepsis is a complex clinical condition and a leading cause of death in children. The
Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score is a useful tool to assess the risk of death in patients with sepsis.
The objective of the study was to determine the usefulness of the SOFA score in predicting mortality in children with sepsis.
Materials and methods. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 90 children, aged 2 months to 15 years, diagnosed with sepsis at Can Tho Children’s Hospital (Vietnam) between March 2018 and June 2020. The statistical analysis was carried out using the Chi-square test(2) and non-parametric tests. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The predictive ability of the SOFA score was evaluated using the area under the ROC curve (AUROC).
Results. Of the 90 children in the study, 35 (38.9%) died, and 55 (61.1%) survived. The mean SOFA score was 9.8±2.9 in the group of patients who died and 4.9±2.7 in the group of patients who survived (p = 0.001). Using an 8-point cutoff, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.904 (p = 0.001, 95% CI:0.83-0.97) The SOFA score had a sensitivity of 88.6% and specificity of 87.3%, while the positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 81.6% and 92.3%, respectively.
Conclusions. The SOFA score has a high sensitivity and specificity in predicting mortality among sepsis patients when using an 8-point cutoff.
Keywords: sepsis, septic shock, SOFA score, children.
Full text sources https://doi.org/10.31688/ABMU.2023.58.1.03
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Address for correspondence:
Duc Long TRAN
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Can Tho University of
Medicine and Pharmacy, Can Tho City 90000, Vietnam
E-mail: tdlong@ctump.edu.vn
