Prediction of mortality in febrile medical patients : How useful are systemic inflammatory response syndrome and sepsis criteria?

The aim was to evaluate demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables in febrile patients, with or without a microbiologically confirmed infection, for prediction of death, in comparison to the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and its criteria, such as abnormal temperature, tachycardia, tachypnea, and abnormal WBC count, and to sepsis, that includes SIRS and an infection. A prospective cohort study. Department of internal medicine at a university hospital. In 300 consecutive, hospitalized medical patients with new onset of fever, demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables were obtained during the 2 days after inclusion, while microbiological results for a follow-up period of 7 days were collected. Patients were followed up for survival or death, up to a maximum of 28 days after inclusion. Of all patients, 95% had SIRS, 44% had sepsis with a microbiologically confirmed infection, and 9% died. A model with a set of variables all significantly (p