How to Calculate Pitt Bacteremia Score?


Pitt Bacteremia Score is a scoring system used in healthcare to evaluate the severity of the illness and predict the risk of early mortality in patients with bloodstream infections. It is quite similar to several clinical scoring systems that are used for giving a score to patients with a specific disease or health condition. It is very useful for various reasons.


The main purpose of the Pitt Bacteremia Score is to reduce the count of bloodstream infection patients who eventually end up dying due to not getting the treatment timely. This scoring system helps healthcare professionals and midwives to prioritize those patients that have a higher risk of mortality in the upcoming days, for treatment and general care. Additionally, it also helps in the smooth and seamless management of the patients as healthcare professionals can decide which patients will get the treatment earlier based on Pitt Bacteremia Score.


Although Pitt Bacteremia Score is originally developed for predicting the early mortality risk in patients with bloodstream infections, it has been found effective and accurate with many non-bacteremic infections too.


Calculating Pitt Bacteremia Score


Pitt Bacteremia Score is calculated based on five health-related elements using an online Pitt Bacteremia Score calculator. However, it can also be calculated without the calculator. The five health elements that are considered during calculating Pitt Bacteremia Score are:


  • Body Temperature

  • Hypotension

  • Mechanical Ventilation

  • Cardiac Arrest

  • Mental Status


Generally, Pitt Bacteremia Score is calculated by qualified doctors at healthcare centers, but a patient can calculate it himself using a Pitt Bacteremia Score calculator.


While calculating the Pitt Bacteremia Score of a patient, each of the five health elements is given a numerical score between 0 to 2 or 0 to 4. These scores are given based on the current health condition and medical history of the patient. The physicians may ask the patients a few questions, such as:


  • Have you experienced cardiac arrest recently?

  • Have you been receiving intravenous vasopressors?

  • Have you experienced an acute hypertensive episode?


Scoring Pattern for Pitt Bacteremia Score


Body Temperature


  • Patients with a body temperature of 35°C or below and 40°C or above are given 2 scores.

  • Patients with a body temperature between 35°C to 36°C and 39°C to 39.9°C are given a score of 1.

  • Patients with a body temperature between 31.1°C to 38.9°C are given a score of 0.


Hypotension


Patients who experience low blood pressure receive 2 scores while patients with no low blood pressure complaint receive a 0 score.


Mechanical Ventilation


Patients who receive IV vasopressors are given 2 scores while the patients who don't have been receiving IV vasopressors are given a 0 score.


Cardiac Arrest


Patients with a cardiac arrest history receive 2 scores while in the absence of a cardiac arrest, patients obtain a score of 0.


Mental Status


Mental Status can be defined in four ways: alert, disoriented, stuporous, and comatose. For each of these mental statuses, a score of 0, 1, 2, and 4 are given respectively.


A total Pitt Bacteremia Score that a patient can receive could be anywhere between 0 and 14 where a score of more than 4 indicates a higher risk of mortality in patients.


To calculate your Pitt Bacteremia Score, you can also use the Medical Algorithms website. Apart from this, you can discover lots of valuable health information on this website