Performance of CURB-65 in predicting mortality of patients with community-acquired pneumonia in Saudi Arabia

Introduction: Various objective scoring systems were developed to standardize the approach to the designation of severity of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). There is limited data on the use of CURB-65 among admitted CAP patients in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: The retrospective study included CAP patients, admitted to a general hospital in Eastern Saudi Arabia. The CURB-65 was extracted from the available medical records. Results: During the study period, from 2013 to 2016, a total of 1786 adults were admitted with a mean age of 63.9 +/- 21.7 (range 14-108 years). The majority of the patients (51.7%) had CURB-65 score 0 or 1 followed by the score 2, 3 and 4/5 (29%, 15.2%, and 4.1%, respectively). The mean CURB-65 was 1.4 +/- 1.12 for those who survived and 2.27 +/- 1.03 for those who died (p < 0.001). The mean age was 63.01 +/- 21.9 years for survived patients and 75.1 +/- 15.58 years for fatal cases (p < 0.001). The overall 30-day crude mortality rate was 7.6%. The mortality rates for CURB-65 scores 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4/5 were 1.8%, 4.3%, 10.2%, 14%, and 21.9%, respectively. Conclusions: The mortality rates of admitted patients with CAP did not differ from those reported in the literature. However, the utilization of CURB-65 score was low and there is a need for wider implementation of pneumonia severity index for patients presenting with CAP.