Usefulness of SMART-COP score in prognosis of aspiration pneumonia

Abstract

IntroductionAspiration pneumonia is becoming a common syndrome in the elderly in aging societies such as Japan. Although a number of tools have been validated for prediction of mortality in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, none have been established for aspiration pneumonia. The purpose of this study was to access the correlations of the A-DROP, CURB-65 and SMART-COP scores at the emergency visit with the 30-day mortality risk in patients with aspiration pneumonia. MethodsWe Titleretrospectively investigated 210 patients who presented to the emergency department at Mishuku Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. ResultsThe areas under the curve for the ability of A-DROP, Curb-65 and SMART-COP scores to predict the 30-day mortality risk were 0.6359, 0.6468 and 0.7594, respectively. Among the parameters of SMART-COP, involvement of multiple lobes on chest radiographs is the best predictor of the mortality. ConclusionsThe SMART-COP score can be a better predictor of the 30-day mortality risk.