External validation of the APPS, a new and simple outcome prediction score in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome

Background A recently developed prediction score based on age, arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen ratio (PaO 2 /FiO 2 ) and plateau pressure (abbreviated as ‘APPS’) was shown to accurately predict mortality in patients diagnosed with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). After thorough temporal external validation of the APPS, we tested the spatial external validity in a cohort of ARDS patients recruited during 3 years in two hospitals in the Netherlands. Methods Consecutive patients with moderate or severe ARDS according to the Berlin definition were included in this observational multicenter cohort study from the mixed medical-surgical ICUs of two university hospitals. The APPS was calculated per patient with the maximal airway pressure instead of the plateau pressure as all patients were ventilated in pressure-controlled mode. The predictive accuracy for hospital mortality was evaluated by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC-ROC). Additionally, the score was recalibrated and reassessed. Results In total, 439 patients with moderate or severe ARDS were analyzed. All-cause hospital mortality was 43 %. The APPS predicted all-cause hospital mortality with moderate accuracy, with an AUC-ROC of 0.62 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.56–0.67]. Calibration was moderate using the original cutoff values (Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness of fit P