Lower respiratory tract infection outcomes are predicted better by an age >80 years than by CURB-65: Fig. 1—

Abstract

Lower respiratory tract infection outcomes are predicted better by an age .80 years than by CURB-65To the Editors:In a recent issue of the European Respiratory Journal, Bont et al.[1] demonstrated that increasing age, previous hospitalisation, heart failure, diabetes, use of oral glucocorticoids, previous use of antibiotics, a diagnosis of pneumonia and an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were independent predictors of 30-day hospitalisation or death in patients with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI). They provided a new scoring system using the variables above for the prognostic predictors in the elderly primary-care patients with LRTI [1].Although some of the predictor variables have been confirmed by other studies, we would like to point out that their results are very important, much more so than previous results.

Validation and comparison of SCAP as a predictive score for identifying low-risk patients in community-acquired pneumonia

“…Other authors have questioned the usefulness of the CURB-65 in elderly patients because it does not assess the impact of many comorbid illnesses on mortality, and have argued that new age criteria, such as age >80 yrs, is a better predictor for poor outcomes than the more conventional of age >65 yrs. 29 Defining the contribution of age is of vital importance given the growing incidence of severe CAP among the elderly, a population most vulnerable to this deadly disease. 30 The SCAP score includes 8 variables that are contained in the CURB-65 and PSI, although it assigns different relative weights to them.…”

Prediction of in-hospital death from community-acquired pneumonia by varying CRB-age groups

“…Our data confirm this, and go further, in that they show that lowering the age cut-off in the younger population, equally, generates better predictions. TERAMOTO et al [3] suggested increasing the cut-off to 80 years in the elderly population.…”

“…However, the optimal cut-off of the variable ''age'' has not been determined, and concerns have been raised about the appropriate age cut-off in the elderly population [3,4]. As it stands, the cut-off of 65 years appears arbitrary.…”

Update on the pathogenesis and management of pneumonia in the elderly-roles of aspiration pneumonia

“…Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is one of the most frequent infections requiring hospitalization and is a leading cause of mortality in the majority of developed countries [1][2][3]. Furthermore, the hospitalized CAP mortality rate increases dramatically with age [1][2][3].…”

“…Furthermore, the hospitalized CAP mortality rate increases dramatically with age [1][2][3]. Since pneumoniarelated hospitalization and mortality are predominantly associated with older patients, the development of management strategies for pneumonia in the elderly is a priority in clinical infectious medicine and geriatric medicine.…”