Prospective validation of the RAPID clinical risk prediction score in adult patients with pleural infection: the PILOT study

BACKGROUND

Over 30% of adult patients with pleural infection either die and/or require surgery. There is no robust means of predicting at baseline presentation which patients will suffer a poor clinical outcome. A validated risk prediction score would allow early identification of high-risk patients, potentially directing more aggressive treatment thereafter.

OBJECTIVES

To prospectively assess a previously described risk score (the RAPID (Renal (urea), Age, fluid Purulence, Infection source, Dietary (albumin)) score) in adults with pleural infection.

METHODS

Prospective observational cohort study that recruited patients undergoing treatment for pleural infection. RAPID score and risk category were calculated at baseline presentation. The primary outcome was mortality at 3 months; secondary outcomes were mortality at 12 months, length of hospital stay, need for thoracic surgery, failure of medical treatment and lung function at 3 months.

RESULTS

Mortality data were available in 542 out of 546 patients recruited (99.3%). Overall mortality was 10% at 3 months (54 out of 542) and 19% at 12 months (102 out of 542). The RAPID risk category predicted mortality at 3 months. Low-risk mortality (RAPID score 0-2): five out of 222 (2.3%, 95% CI 0.9 to 5.7%); medium-risk mortality (RAPID score 3-4): 21 out of 228 (9.2%, 95% CI 6.0 to 13.7%); and high-risk mortality (RAPID score 5-7): 27 out of 92 (29.3%, 95% CI 21.0 to 39.2%). C-statistics for the scores at 3 months and 12 months were 0.78 (95% CI 0.71-0.83) and 0.77 (95% CI 0.72-0.82), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The RAPID score stratifies adults with pleural infection according to increasing risk of mortality and should inform future research directed at improving outcomes in this patient population.

[Indications for tubal recanalisation in diagnostic and interventional hysterosalpingography]

Three hundred and seventy-seven hysterosalpingographies performed in 1992 in the Radiology Department of the S. Anna Hospital, Turin, Italy, were reviewed to assess the role and the real incidence of indications to catheterization and to selective salpingography. Proximal tube obstruction treatable by means of extemporary mono-bilateral catheterization was found in 18.3% of cases, but only in 7.4% was catheterization really indicated. In 67.2% of patients repeated contrast medium injections, at high pressure, with the catheter end in front of the internal ostium of the Fallopian tube, allowed recanalization--which made catheterization unnecessary. Catheterization was performed in 18 cases where double injection had failed and was successful in 15 patients (83.3%). Even though selective interventional salpingography is valuable, its use in rarely necessary, especially if conventional hysterosalpingography is performed at the correct injection pressure. Therefore, we conclude that the interventional kit for proximal tube recanalization must always be available, but its use in routine exams is unnecessary.

[Diagnostic imaging in non-palpable breast lesions. Targeted++ ultrasonography versus direct radiologic magnification]

The main target of mammography in asymptomatic women is the early diagnosis, or rather the identification, of non-palpable breast cancers. Doubtful or suspicious findings on conventional mammograms with no clinical evidence call for radiologic or other complementary imaging techniques to assess the exact lesion nature. Direct magnification and US are targeted techniques to employ as additional investigations after conventional mammography. Fifty consecutive patients were referred to our department of radiology for the preoperative localization of non-palpable breast lesions previously identified on conventional mammograms. The diagnostic or complementary roles of direct magnification and of US were thus investigated. US was always repeated during the preoperative localization; a 10-MHz immersion sectorial probe was used. Magnification was performed if absent or poor in conventional mammograms. The contribution of each technique to conventional mammography was graded as valuable (A), medium (B), or null (C). The lesions were grouped according to their structure: microcalcifications (a), nodules (b), scars (c), and complex lesions (a+b, a+c, b+c, ecc.). Six cases are included in our series which had been diagnosed as questionable or suspicious on previous mammograms. In our department, they were diagnosed as benign. Two of them were operated on because biopsy was required by the gynecologist and the other underwent stereotaxic FNB: negative cytology was considered the final diagnosis. Forty-six histologic and 4 cytologic examinations diagnosed 25 malignant and 25 benign lesions. Direct magnification was of great value in all cases, whereas US was useless in microcalcifications and useful in nodular or complex lesions, especially those with a nodular component. However, the incidence of US false-negatives was high, even in very suspicious cases on mammography, which suggests that US negativity cannot be considered an adequate sign to rule malignancy out.