Table 1.

Known Risk Factors for Poor Prognoses for Patients With Anthrax From Any Route of Infection as Noted in Reviewed References

	Predictors for
Symptoms/Signs/Diagnostics	Inhalation Anthrax	Meningitis	Severe Illness/Death
Symptoms
Fever ± chills		[11]
Nausea/vomiting	[15] [16] [17]	[11]
Sweats (diaphoresis)	[15] [17]
Headache	[15]	[11]	[11]
Headache, severe		[11]
Nonheadache, neurological symptoms	[16]
Cough	[15]		[19]
Shortness of breath	[15] [16]		[19]
Chest pain	[15]
Abdominal pain	[15]
Cyanosis/pallor	[17]
Signs
Bleeding (hematemesis)		[11]
Vital signs
Hypothermia			[4]
Tachycardia	[18]
Tachypnea		[11]
Systolic hypotension			[4]
Skin/lesion description
Large			[4] [20] [21] [22] [23]
Multiple			[4] [20] [21] [22] [23]
Including the head, neck, or upper torso			[4] [20] [21] [22] [23]
Surrounded by edema			[4]
Neurologic
Altered mental status	[17]	[11]	[11]
Meningeal signs		[11]
Nonheadache, nonmeningeal signsa		[11]
Pulmonary
Abnormal lung examination	[16]
Fulminant		[11]
Diagnostic test results
Bacteremia			[2] [25]b
Leukocytosis			[4] [11]
Hemoglobinemia	[17] [18]		[4]
Thrombocytopenia			[24]
Hyponatremia	[18]		[4]
Hypoalbuminemia	[18]		[4]
Elevated transaminases	[18]		[4]

^aNonheadache, nonmeningeal signs include seizure, cranial nerve signs, limb weakness, and papilledema.

^bBased on risk ratio calculation using data from Table 1 in Abramova et al [25].