Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the existing relationship among the scores of the GCS and the APACHE-II system and the CT findings in patients with traumatic brain injury who were admitted to the mixed medical and surgical ICU of University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, Greece during the decade 1994-2003. In addition, the validation of APACHE-II system in this sample is attempted. Furthermore, effort is made to produce regression models to accurately predict a) the verbal response of the GCS based upon the eye and motor components of the GCS and b) the APACHE-II score using a more limited set of variables.
The male:female ratio and the traffic accidents:falls ratio is 7,2:1 and 3,3:1 respectively. The mean age is 45,19±2,555 years (34,07±3,628 for survivors and 55,48±3,672 for non-survivors). The mean ICU stay is 11,5±2,051 days and the ICU mortality is 48,6%.
The mean GCS score is 6,39±0,554 (6,81±0,983 for survivors and 5,55±0,706 for non-survivors). The most frequently fo ...
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the existing relationship among the scores of the GCS and the APACHE-II system and the CT findings in patients with traumatic brain injury who were admitted to the mixed medical and surgical ICU of University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, Greece during the decade 1994-2003. In addition, the validation of APACHE-II system in this sample is attempted. Furthermore, effort is made to produce regression models to accurately predict a) the verbal response of the GCS based upon the eye and motor components of the GCS and b) the APACHE-II score using a more limited set of variables.
The male:female ratio and the traffic accidents:falls ratio is 7,2:1 and 3,3:1 respectively. The mean age is 45,19±2,555 years (34,07±3,628 for survivors and 55,48±3,672 for non-survivors). The mean ICU stay is 11,5±2,051 days and the ICU mortality is 48,6%.
The mean GCS score is 6,39±0,554 (6,81±0,983 for survivors and 5,55±0,706 for non-survivors). The most frequently found GCS scores are: 3 (60,8%, extremely high percentage), 15 (12,2%), 14 (6,8%) and 11 (5,4%).
The mean APACHE-II score is 15,91±0,890 (12,85±1,243 for survivors and 19,30±1,304 for non-survivors). Scores ≥25 and ≤4 are never found in survivors and non-survivors respectively. The most frequently found APACHE-II scores are: 15 and 17 (8,1% each), 9, 13, 18 and 22 (6,8% each) and 7, 11, 14 and 25 (4,1% each).
The incidence on CT scans of fractures, cerebral oedema, SAH and SDH is 64,9%, 48,6%, 43,2% and 37,8% respectively. The presence of blood in paranasal sinuses, injuries of extracranial soft tissues and contusions are revealed in 28,4%, 28,4% and 24,3% of cases respectively. ICH is seen in 18,9%, EDH in 17,6% and IVH in 4,1% of CT scans. Normal CT scans represent only 1,4%.
Correlation is evident between a) the APACHE-II score and the presence or not of fractures, b) the GCS score and the presence or not of contusions, c) outcome and the presence or not of SDH, SAH and injuries of extracranial soft tissues, d) age and SDH, e) the APACHE-II score and outcome, f) age and outcome and g) predicted risk and outcome. The mean predicted risk is 0,2106±0,0217 (0,1345±0,0174 for survivors and 0,2729±0,0333 for non-survivors). On the contrary, there is no correlation between a) postoperative / non-operative patients and sex or positive CT scan and b) the GCS score and patients’ origin (postoperative / non-operative) and outcome.
The calibration of APACHE-II is fair (χ2=5,37, p=0,683, df=8). The APACHE-II system overestimates the risk of death in the lower ranges of predicted risk (0-20% and 30-40%) and underestimates the deaths in the higher ranges (20-30% and >40%). The discriminative ability of APACHE-II and GCS, measured as the AUC of corresponding ROC curves, is 0,854±0,047 and 0,548±0,076 respectively. In this sample the best cut-off points are found to be 0,2226 (for predicted risk, Se=54,5%, Sp=88,9%, Youden=0,43), 19 (for APACHE-II, Se=48,5%, Sp=92,6%, Youden=0,41) and 10 (for GCS, Se=84,8%, Sp=33,3%, Youden=0,18). For the former cut-off points, the APACHE-II system presents CC=68,33%, PPV=88,88%, NPV=59,20%, LR+=6,6425, LR-=0,5564, while the corresponding percentages for the GCS are 61,67%, 60,86%, 64,29%, 1,2725 και 0,4548.
For the shake of simplicity 4 regression models are proposed: a) GCS-Verbal = 0,963 + 0,029*EM,2 (where E stands for the eye and M for the motor component of the GCS), b) APS(12) = 148,843 – 1,074 * GCS – 16,878 * pH – 0,190 * HCT + 4,082 * CREAT, c) APACHE-II = 152,611 – 1,051 * GCS + 4,762 * CREAT + 0,097 * AGE – 17,625 * pH – 0,226 * HCT and d) APACHE-II = 1,789 + 1,025 * APS(12).
Finally, generalization of the previous findings is limited by the relatively small sample size, the APACHE-II score calculation by residents (lack of experience) and the extremely frequent GCS score 3. Nonetheless, the APACHE-II system is still considered a useful tool in supporting clinical decisions.
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