Study: Predictive Accuracy of the Quick Sepsis-Related Organ Failure Assessment Score in Brazil: A Prospective Multicenter Study

Our colleagues from the Latin American Sepsis Institute would like to draw your attention to an important contribution to the literature around qSOFA.

When the Sepsis-3 definition was published, a new retrospectively-derived tool was proposed to help identify patients with infection at higher risk of deterioration – the 'quick-SOFA' or qSOFA score. Although it was intended only as a risk prediction score, many institutions are now incorrectly using it as a screening tool for sepsis.

LASI, concerned about the potential for low sensitivity of qSOFA, conducted a prospective observational study to evaluate it in Brazil. This study has now been published in a high-impact journal, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM).

This is a robust, prospective, multicenter study across 74 Brazilian hospitals, including more than 10,000 patients. It shows that qSOFA has a low sensitivity for the prediction of mortality and suggests that its use as a screening tool for patients with suspected sepsis may result in a high proportion of patients being missed - meaning for many that they ultimately would die. The authors also propose alternative tools to improve the sensitivity of qSOFA when screening for sepsis.