title: [Assessment of severity of meningococcal sepsis in children].
abstract: Despite advances in critical care medicine, acute meningococcal infection remains complicated by high mortality. Different prognostic scoring systems have been developed but none of them is largely used. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance at admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of five severity scores in children with proven and unproven meningococcal infection. Our results seem to indicate that the Neisseria Sepsis Index (NESI) and the Rotterdam Score (RS) perform better than the other scores, being appropriate tools to assess severity of illness at admission to the PICU in children with proven or presumed meningococcal infection.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Pediatria, Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisboa.
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Oom
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Correia
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index