Abstract
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with pneumonia should receive the guidance of initial risk stratification and early warning as soon as possible. Whether the prehospital Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage (PRIEST) score can accurately predict the short-term prognosis of them remains unknown. Accordingly, we aimed to assess the performance of prehospital PRIEST in predicting the 30-day mortality of patients. METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated the accuracy of five physiological parameters scores commonly used in prehospital disposal for mortality prediction using receiver operating characteristic curves and decision curve analysis. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was conducted to evaluate independent predictors associated with the 30-day mortality. RESULTS: A total of 231 patients were included in this study, among which 23 cases (10.0%) died within 30 days after admission. Compared with survivor patients, non-survivor patients had greater numbers of comorbidities, signs and symptoms, complications, and physiological parameters scores and required greater prehospital care (p < 0.05). When the PRIEST score was >12, the sensitivity was 91.3%, and the specificity was 77.4%. We found that the area under the curve of the PRIEST score (0.887, p < 0.05) for mortality prediction was greater than that of the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (0.724), CRB-65 (0.780), Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (0.809), and National Early Warning Score 2 (0.838). Moreover, prehospital PRIEST scores were positively correlated with numbers of comorbidities and numbers of prehospital treatment measures. The 30-day survival rate of patients with PRIEST scores ≤12 (98.8%) significantly exceeded that of patients with PRIEST scores >12 (69.1%) (p < 0.001). Prehospital PRIEST scores >12 (HR = 7.409) was one of the independent predictors of the 30-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The PRIEST can accurately, quickly, and conveniently predict the 30-day mortality of COVID-19 patients with pneumonia in the prehospital phase and can guide their initial risk stratification and treatment.