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Development of a scoring system for the early diagnosis of equine neonatal sepsis
Author(s) -
BREWER BARBARA D.,
KOTERBA ANNE M.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
equine veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 2042-3306
pISSN - 0425-1644
DOI - 10.1111/j.2042-3306.1988.tb01445.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sepsis , scoring system , neonatal sepsis , neonatal intensive care unit , pediatrics , mortality rate , false positive rate , emergency medicine , intensive care medicine , statistics , mathematics
Summary A sepsis scoring system was developed and tested prospectively in a blind study of 190 neonatal foals admitted to the University of Florida Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. The system used 14 readily available historical, clinical or laboratory variables and weighted each item to arrive at a sepsis score. The score was found to have a sensitivity of 93 per cent, a specificity of 86 per cent, positive accuracy rate of 89 per cent and negative accuracy rate of 92 per cent. The sepsis score was far more sensitive and specific for infection, even in very early cases, and had fewer false positive and false negative values than did any parameter taken individually.