Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Various scoring systems have been developed for early identification of seriously ill neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit, but studies comparing their predictive accuracies are scarce. AIM: To compare the performance of six neonatal mortality prediction scores in a resource-limited setting. METHODS: This prospective observational study included neonates admitted within 24 hours of birth to a major Egyptian neonatal intensive care unit from March 2023 to May 2024. Each newborn was assessed within 12 hours after admission for Clinical Risk Index for Babies II (CRIB II), Score for Neonatal Acute Physiology II, Score for Neonatal Acute Physiology Perinatal Extension II, sensorium, temperature, oxygenation, perfusion, skin color, and blood sugar (STOPS), Modified Sick Neonatal Score (MSNS), and neonatal sequential organ failure assessment (nSOFA). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated for each score to assess and compare their predictive accuracy for all-cause in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: = 105) exhibited significantly lower MSNS and higher other scores. The AUCs values were MSNS (0.91) > Score for Neonatal Acute Physiology Perinatal Extension II and STOPS (each 0.89) > neonatal sequential organ failure assessment and Score for Neonatal Acute Physiology II (each 0.88) > CRIB II (0.82). Overall predictive accuracy ranged from 87.3% for both MSNS (cutoff < 10) and STOPS (cutoff > 2) to 75.3% for CRIB II (cutoff > 4). All AUCs were comparable, except for CRIB II, which performed better in preterm babies < 33 weeks than in the overall cohort. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated good and comparable performance of multiple neonatal mortality prediction scores in a resource-limited setting, with more simple scores such as MSNS and STOPS offering the advantages of greater applicability.
DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.117203
Institution: Sohag University
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7163140575