Predicting Which Patients with CAP Need ICU Admission

Several prediction models exist for determining which patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) can be safely treated as outpatients; however, these models perform poorly for predicting severe CAP. Researchers used data from consecutive patients with CAP at a single U.S. academic tertiary care facility from 1996 to 2006 to retrospectively evaluate performance of the 2007 Infectious Diseases Society of America/American Thoracic Society (IDSA/ATS) criteria for predicting severe CAP. Patients with aspiration pneumonia, immune suppression, recurrent pneumonia, nondiagnostic chest x-rays, chronic dialysis, and do-not-resuscitate orders were excluded.

Of 2413 eligible patients, 1540 (64%) were admitted to the hospital, and, of those, 378 (2…