Pediatric anesthesia & critical care
Predictive and Prognostic Performance of the Phoenix Sepsis Criteria and Phoenix Sepsis Score in PICU Patients With Suspected Infection: A Multicenter Prospective Study
Authors' conclusion
PSC and PSS performed superior to IPSCC criteria in diagnosing and prognosticating pediatric sepsis, with improved performance at day 2 of PICU admission.
Study context
- Population
- Patients <18 years admitted with suspected infection to 8 Italian PICUs (TIPNet), February 2022 to April 2024
- Participants
- 687 patients · 8 PICUs
- Exposure
- Phoenix Sepsis Criteria (PSC) vs International Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference (IPSCC)
- Outcome
- PICU mortality
Methodological detailsmulticentre
- Multicentre
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Prediction of PICU mortality · day 1
| Group | Sensitivity | PPV |
|---|---|---|
| PSC | 96.4% (95% CI, 95.0-97.8%)Sensitivity on a scale from 0 to 100 percent | 7.6% (95% CI, 5.6-9.6%) |
| IPSCC | 82.1% (95% CI, 79.3-85.0%)Sensitivity on a scale from 0 to 100 percent | 6.2% (95% CI, 4.4-8.0%) |
Sensitivity
PSC96.4% (95% CI, 95.0-97.8%)
IPSCC82.1% (95% CI, 79.3-85.0%)
Sensitivity on a scale from 0 to 100 percentPPV
PSC7.6% (95% CI, 5.6-9.6%)
IPSCC6.2% (95% CI, 4.4-8.0%)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | PSC | IPSCC |
|---|---|---|
| Prediction of PICU mortality · day 2 | ||
| Sensitivity | 100.0% (95% CI, 100.0-100.0%) | 75.0% (95% CI, 71.5-78.5%) |
| PPV | 10.0% (95% CI, 7.6-12.5%) | 9.0% (95% CI, 6.7-11.3%) |
Prognostic performance of organ dysfunction scores for mortality (area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC))
- PELOD-2 highest AUPRC, day 1
- 0.45 (95% CI, 0.26-0.63)
- PELOD-2 highest AUPRC, day 2
- 0.59 (95% CI, 0.38-0.77)
- IPSCC Severe Sepsis score outperformed by all other organ dysfunction scores, including Phoenix Sepsis Score (PSS) and Phoenix-8
- All prognostic performances improved from day 1 to day 2
Original publication
Predictive and Prognostic Performance of the Phoenix Sepsis Criteria and Phoenix Sepsis Score in PICU Patients With Suspected Infection: A Multicenter Prospective Study. Crit Care Med. Published 14 January 2026. doi:10.
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