The following is a summary of “Hypoxia-age-shock index at triage to predict the outcomes of Covid-19 patients,” published in the March 2023 issue of Emergency Medicine by Hsieh, et al.

While quick patient disposition is crucial, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has greatly impacted medical workers. Thus, for a study, researchers sought to create a novel clinical assessment tool based on the shock index (SI) and age-shock index (ASI). For patients infected with COVID-19 in the first scene, they suggested the hypoxia-age-shock index (HASI) and established its applicability.

Using the receiver operating curve (ROC), the predictive ability of three indices of mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and endotracheal intubation rate was assessed. To compare the ROCs, they applied DeLong’s technique.

SI, ASI, and HASI had areas under the curves (AUC) for ROC on mortality, respectively, 0.546, 0.771, and 0.773. SI, ASI, and HASI had AUCs on ICU admission mortality that was, respectively, 0.581, 0.700, and 0.743. SI, ASI, and HASI each had an AUC for intubation of 0.592, 0.708, and 0.757, respectively. In terms of mortality, ICU admission, and intubation, the AUC variations between HASI and SI produced statistically significant findings (P = 0.001). For the AUC difference between the HASI and ASI on ICU admission and intubation (P = 0.001 and P = 0.004, respectively), statistically significant results were also discovered.

In terms of ICU admission and endotracheal intubation, HASI can offer a more accurate forecast than ASI. For predicting death, ICU admission, and intubation, HASI was more accurate than ASI.

Reference: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735675722007781