Comparative assessment of the predictive ability of the nSOFA and NEOMOD scales in preterm newborns
BACKGROUND: A life-threatening organ dysfunction is a strong predictor of in-hospital mortality and adverse outcomes in pediatric patients and full-term neonates. Predictors of outcomes of multiple-organ failure in preterm newborns have not yet been sufficiently determined. AIM: To compare the discriminatory ability of neonatal sequential organ failure (nSOFA) and NEOMOD organ dysfunction scales as predictors of poor outcomes in very preterm newborns. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective observational study included 109 newborns with a birth weight of 1071 (772-1451) g and gestational age of 29 (26-32) weeks; 22 (20.4%) of them died. RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.796 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.763-0.827) for the nSOFA scale and 0.771 (95% CI 0.721-0.817) for the NEOMOD scale. CONCLUSIONS. Both scales are suitable for measuring the severity of organ dysfunction in preterm newborns. nSOFA appears to predict mortality in preterm newborns.