SMART-COP for CAP

Predicting severity of Community Acquired pneumonia can be difficult even when we use severity indexes like CURB-65 and Pneumonia severity Index. SMART-COP ss eems to a better option concludes this brief report.
The UK Department of Health has published concerns that pneumonia severity scores determined at hospital admission may underestimate the severity of pneumonia in young adults. SMART-COP (systolic blood pressure, multilobar chest radiography involvement, albumin level, respiratory rate, tachycardia, confusion, oxygenation, and arterial pH) was superior to both the CURB65 (confusion, urea, respiratory rate, systolic or diastolic blood pressure, and age 65 years) score and the Pneumonia Severity Index in predicting the need for mechanical ventilation and/or inotropic support, but SMART-COP would still incorrectly stratify 15% of patients..