Table 2.
Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study cohort (N=249). Comparator = unanimous method, meaning that the site investigators’ consensus discharge assessment and the individual evaluations by the three external RPD panelists were in complete agreement, regarding the diagnosis of SIRS or sepsis. If the agreement was less than unanimous, then an indeterminate call was made
| Parameter category | Parameter | SIRS (n = 106) | Sepsis (n = 69) | Indeterminate (n = 74) | p value1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | Age: median (IQR) | 54 (40–65) | 60 (47–67) | 64 (53–75) | 0.002 |
| Sex: female | 51 (48%) | 30 (44%) | 36 (49%) | 0.79 | |
| White | 68 (64%) | 41 (59%) | 53 (72%) | 0.30 | |
| Black | 30 (28%) | 16 (23%) | 16 (22%) | 0.55 | |
| Asian/East Indian | 2 (2%) | 6 (9%) | 2 (3%) | 0.06 | |
| Hispanic | 4 (4%) | 5 (7%) | 3 (4%) | 0.54 | |
| Other or unrecorded | 2 (2%) | 1 (1%) | 0 | 0.51 | |
| Blood culture result | 1. No blood culture done or blood culture negative | 100 (94%) | 11 (16%) | 66 (89%) | < 0.001 |
| 2. Blood culture positive | 3 (3%) | 29 (42%) | 4 (5%) | < 0.001 | |
| 3. Gram positive | 3 (3%) | 13 (19%) | 3 (4%) | < 0.001 | |
| 4. Gram negative | 0 | 11 (16%) | 1 (1%) | < 0.001 | |
| 5. Mixed Gram pos/neg | 0 | 5 (7%) | 0 | 0.001 | |
| 6. Fungus | 0 | 0 | 0 | NA | |
| Infection site | Respiratory tract (non-lung) | 0 | 3 (4%) | 4 (5%) | 0.06 |
| Lung (pneumonia) | 3 (3%) | 15 (22%) | 24 (32%) | < 0.001 | |
| Abdominal | 0 | 10 (14%) | 2 (3%) | < 0.001 | |
| Urinary tract | 0 | 8 (12%) | 3 (4%) | 0.001 | |
| Other site | 0 | 21 (30%) | 4 (5%) | < 0.001 | |
| Not identified | 103 (97%) | 12 (17%) | 37 (50%) | < 0.001 | |
| Clinical parameters, outcome | Days in hospital: median (IQR) | 3 (2–5) | 8 (5–14)3 | 6 (4–9) | < 0.001 |
| Days in ICU: median (IQR) | 2 (1–2) | 3 (2–5) | 2 (1–4) | 0.002 | |
| Antibiotics given in ICU | 60 (57%) | 68 (99%) | 68 (92%) | < 0.001 | |
| APACHE score: median (IQR)2 | 54 (29–84) | 76 (46–95)3 | 82 (48–103)4 | < 0.001 | |
| SOFA score: median (IQR) | 4 (2–7)6 | 5 (4–10)5 | 6 (4–8)7 | 0.02 | |
| Mortality | 6 (6%) | 9 (13%)3 | 9 (12%) | 0.18 |
Abbreviations: ANOVA analysis of variance, APACHE Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation, ICU intensive care unit, IQR inter-quartile range, NC not calculated, neg negative, pos positive, RPD retrospective physician diagnosis, SOFA sequential organ failure assessment
1For distributions (like age), the p value is derived from ANOVA. For categorical variables such as sex, the p value is derived from a three-sample test for equality of proportions without continuity correction. p values derived from small samples should not be considered definitive.
2APACHE score, as calculated at different clinical sites (site, version, available to RPD panelists): IMH III yes; LDSH III yes; JHH III no; NH IV no; RUMC II yes; LUMC III no; GMH III no.
368/69 sepsis patients with data recorded
473/74 indeterminate patients with data recorded
555/69 sepsis patients with data recorded
670/106 SIRS patients with data recorded
760/74 indeterminate patients with data recorded