Pediatric Alert Score (EPA) performance in sepsis screening

Abstract

Objective To assess Pediatric Alert Score (EPA) performance in screening cases of sepsis in a hospital context. Methods This is a diagnostic test study guided by the Standards for the Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (STARD) recommendations. The sample consisted of 190 children and adolescents admitted to a hospital in the countryside of Bahia, Brazil. Data collection was carried out in the database of an umbrella project in medical records and the hospital’s records system. Processing and analysis were performed in SPSS® version 25.0 for Windows and MedCalc® version 20.00. EPA performance in sepsis screening when compared to the reference standard criteria was measured through sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and ROC curve. Results Among the participants, 53.2% were male, with a mean age of 4.39 years (SD: 4.28) and a median of 3 years (IQR: 1 – 8). The prevalence of sepsis identified by the reference standard was 10% and by EPA (23.1%). The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of EPA in sepsis screening were 73.7%, 82.5%, 31.8% and 96.6%, respectively. The area under the ROC curve was 0.794. Conclusion The study presents evidence on EPA performance in sepsis screening, demonstrating good accuracy in discriminating pediatric patients with and without sepsis in the studied sample.