Severity scores in COVID-19 pneumonia: a multicenter, retrospective, cohort study

Abstract BackgroundIdentification of patients on admission to hospital with Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia who can develop poor outcomes have not yet ben comprehensively assessed.ObjectiveTo compare severity scores used for community acquired pneumonia to identify high-risk patients.DesignPSI, CURB-65, qSOFA and MuLBSTA, a new score for viral pneumonia, were calculated on admission to hospital to identify high-risk patients for in-hospital mortality. Area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC), sensitivity and specificity for each score were determined and AUROC were compared among them.ParticipantsPatients with COVID-19 pneumonia included in the SEMI-COVID-19 Network.Key resultsWe examined 10,238 patients with COVID-19. Mean age of patients was 66.6 years and 57.9% were males. The most common comorbidities were: hypertension (49.2%), diabetes (18.8%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (12.8%). Acute respiratory distress syndrome (34.7%) and acute kidney injury (13.9%) were the most common complications. In-hospital mortality was 20.9%. PSI and CURB-65 showed the highest AUROC (0.835 and0.825, respectively). qSOFA and MuLBSTA had a lower AUROC (0.728 and 0.715, respectively). qSOFA was the most specific score (specificity 95.7%) albeit its sensitivity was only 26.2%. PSI had the highest sensitivity (84.1%) and a specificity of 72.2%.ConclusionsPSI and CURB-65, specific severity scores for pneumonia, were the best scores for COVID-19 pneumonia and were better than qSOFA and MuLBSTA. Additionally, qSOFA, the simplest score to perform, was the most specific albeit the least sensitive.