title: [The validity of the index of pediatric mortality risk (PRISM) in a pediatric intensive care unit].
abstract: With the purpose to compare the observed and expected mortality rates (based on the PRISM score) in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the "Hospital para el Niño Poblano", a prospective study of 92 patients admitted from August to December of 1992 was made. More than five percent of mortality risk was observed among 60.2% of the patients at the PICU admittance. The predicted mortality was not different from the expected mortality (P < 0.05). We observed that seven of ten patients who died with less than 50% mortality risk, had inotropic treatment previously to PICU admittance, there was no haemodynamic alterations in these patients at the PICU admittance, and the PRISM score was low. We suggest that the PRISM score should be interpreted with caution in those patients whose treatment may change the physiologic variables included in the PRISM score.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Investigación, Hospital para el Niño Poblano, Puebla, México.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pulido-Barba
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Beltrán-Rámirez
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Vázquez de Lara-Cisneros
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D009026:Mortality; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
vernacular_title: Validez del índice de riesgo de mortalidad pediátrica (PRISM), en una Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Pediátricos.