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    Patent Pending

    CURB-65 Score for Pneumonia Severity

    Estimates mortality of community-acquired pneumonia to help determine inpatient vs. outpatient treatment.

    IMPORTANT

    Tips for COVID-19: Use after diagnosis to determine dispo. May have some value in COVID-19.

    When to Use
    Pearls/Pitfalls
    Why Use

    The CURB-65 calculator can be used in the emergency department setting to risk stratify a patient’s community acquired pneumonia.

    • The CURB-65 Score includes points for confusion and blood urea nitrogen, which in the acutely ill elderly patient, could be due to a variety of factors. An alternative scoring system, SOAR, circumvents those two parameters. It uses low systolic BP (S) and poor oxygenation (PaO2: FIO2) (O), advancing age (A), high respiratory rate (R).
    • CURB-65 does not assign points for co-morbid illness and nursing home residence, as the original study did account for many of these conditions.
    • CURB-65 may not identify patients requiring ICU admission as well as the PSI.
    • CURB-65 is fast to compute, requires likely already-available patient information, and provides an excellent risk stratification of community acquired pneumonia. It can facilitate better utilization of resources and treatment initiation.
    • In comparison to the PSI, CURB-65 offers equal sensitivity of mortality prediction due to community acquired pneumonia. Notably, CURB-65 (74.6%) has a higher specificity than PSI (52.2%).

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      Creator Insights
      Dr. John Macfarlane

      About the Creator

      John Macfarlane, MD, is a consultant respiratory physician at Nottingham City Hospital in the United Kingdom. He is an active researcher in the field of thoracic medicine with a special focus on bacterial and community acquired infections.

      To view Dr. John Macfarlane's publications, visit PubMed

      Are you Dr. John Macfarlane? Send us a message to review your photo and bio, and find out how to submit Creator Insights!
      MDCalc loves calculator creators – researchers who, through intelligent and often complex methods, discover tools that describe scientific facts that can then be applied in practice. These are real scientific discoveries about the nature of the human body, which can be invaluable to physicians taking care of patients.
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