Dyspnea, eosinopenia, consolidation, acidemia, atrial fibrillation and confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and age-65 as a prognostic indicator in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a prevalent chronic illness characterized by persistent airflow limitation. Episodes of acute worsening, known as acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD), represent significant clinical events associated with increased morbidity and mortality. In-hospital mortality among patients admitted with AECOPD remains considerable. Therefore, reliable prognostic scoring systems are essential for risk stratification and guiding optimal clinical management. Aims and Objectives: This study evaluates how well the dyspnea, eosinopenia, consolidation, acidemia, atrial fibrillation (DECAF) score and the confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and age (CURB-65) score are utilized as mortality predictors in patients with acute COPD exacerbations. Materials and Methods: This study was done in the General Medicine Department ESI Hospital in Rajajinagar, Bangalore. The dataset was collected later assess and compare the predictive capability of these scoring systems, area under the curve (AUC) values were derived to determine the accuracy of each score in distinguishing survivors from non-survivors. Results: Average DECAF score of 0.57±0.98 and a mean CURB-65 score of 2.95±2.00. The study population had a mean age of 42.96±19.41 years. Five patients (3.1%) died during hospitalization. The DECAF score demonstrated an AUC of 1.000, reflecting better discrimination (predicting) mortality in AECOPD, while the CURB-65 score achieved an AUC of 0.996. Conclusion: The higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value supports DECAF as a more dependable tool for risk assessment in this clinical setting.