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Upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding is a common reason for hospital admission. The Glasgow-Blatchford bleeding score (GBS), which is based on simple clinical and laboratory markers, predicts death and need for intervention (blood transfusion, endoscopy, or surgery). A GBS of 0 (pulse <100 bpm; systolic blood pressure ≥110 mm Hg; hemoglobin ≥13 mg/L for men or ≥12 mg/L for women; and absence of melena, syncope, heart failure, or liver disease) identifies patients at very low (0.5%) risk. The more widely used Rockall scoring system requires endoscopy results for calculation of the full score, making it less useful in the emergency department.
In the first phase of a two-phase study, researchers compared the GBS and admission (preendoscopy) a…