Abstract
The American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) suggested two sets of criteria in 2001 and 2007 to define clinical stability (CS) in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We aim to evaluate the level of agreement between these two sets of criteria and how well they can predict clinical outcomes.
A retrospective cohort study of 487 consecutive patients hospitalised with CAP. Level of agreement was tested using a survival curve analysis, while prediction of outcomes at 30-day follow-up was evaluated through receiver-operator curves (ROC).
A discrepancy between ATS 2001 and ATS/IDSA 2007 criteria in identifying CS was detected in 62% of the patients. The median (IQR) time to CS was 2 (1-4) days based on ATS 2001 and 3 (2–5) days based on ATS/IDSA 2007 criteria (p=0.012). The daily distribution of patients who reached CS evaluated with both sets was different (p=0.002). The ROC analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.705 for the ATS 2001 criteria and 0.714 for ATS/IDSA 2007 criteria, p=0.645.
ATS 2001 and ATS/IDSA 2007 criteria for CS in hospitalised patients with CAP are clinically equivalent and both can be used in clinical practice as well as in clinical research.
- ERS