Abstract Background: Timely recognition of sepsis in critically ill patients is crucial to lowering mortality. Both quick Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) and lactate independently predict severity; combining them may improve prognostic accuracy. Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate serum lactate alongside qSOFA scores to determine whether their integration offers better outcome prediction than either score alone. Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study enrolled 200 critically ill patients aged ≥18 years with a Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome score ≥2. qSOFA scores and serum lactate levels were recorded at 0 h and at 12, 24, and 48 h of postintervention. The primary outcome measured was in-hospital mortality, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was done to evaluate the predictive performance of the qSOFA-Lactate score. Results: Among the 200 critically ill patients, 58 (29%) died during their hospital stay, with males accounting for 72.4% of these deaths. The combined qSOFA and lactate score showed the greatest sensitivity (98.3%) and negative predictive value (94.7%) for forecasting in-hospital mortality. Notably, the combined score’s predictive performance improved over time, surpassing qSOFA alone at 24 and 48 h. Conclusion: Incorporating serum lactate levels into qSOFA score improves its accuracy in predicting in-hospital mortality, providing a quick and reliable risk stratification in critically ill patients.
Kidwai et al. (Thu,) studied this question.