Current Utility of Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score: A Literature Review and Future Directions.

The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score is commonly used in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to evaluate, prognosticate and assess patients. Since its validation, the SOFA score has served in various settings, including medical, trauma, surgical, cardiac, and neurological ICUs. It has been a strong mortality predictor and literature over the years has documented the ability of the SOFA score to accurately distinguish survivors from non-survivors on admission. Over the years, multiple variations have been proposed to the SOFA score, which have led to the evolution of alternate validated scoring models replacing one or more components of the SOFA scoring system. Various SOFA based models have been used to evaluate specific clinical populations, such as patients with cardiac dysfunction, hepatic failure, renal failure, different races and public health illnesses, etc. This study is aimed to conduct a review of modifications in SOFA score in the past several years. We review the literature evaluating various modifications to the SOFA score such as modified SOFA, Modified SOFA, modified Cardiovascular SOFA, Extra-renal SOFA, Chronic Liver Failure SOFA, Mexican SOFA, quick SOFA, Lactic acid quick SOFA (LqSOFA), SOFA in hematological malignancies, SOFA with Richmond Agitation-Sedation scale and Pediatric SOFA. Various organ systems, their relevant scoring and the proposed modifications in each of these systems are presented in detail. There is a need to incorporate the most recent literature into the SOFA scoring system to make it more relevant and accurate in this rapidly evolving critical care environment. For future directions, we plan to put together most if not all updates in SOFA score and probably validate it in a large database a single institution and validate it in multisite data base.

Idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis presenting in an adult: A case report and review of the literature.

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) is characterized by the presence of hemoptysis, anemia, and the presence of diffuse parenchymal infiltrates on imaging studies. Idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis (IPH) is an uncommon cause of diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) and is classically known to present in childhood. Adult-onset IPH is extremely rare. We report the case of a 48-year-old female patient who presented with hemoptysis and acute hypoxic respiratory failure, requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. Imaging studies showed diffuse bilateral patchy infiltrates. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) confirmed the diagnosis of DAH. Extensive workup including video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical lung biopsy (VATS) failed to reveal any vasculitis, infectious, immunological or connective tissue disorder, as the underlying cause for DAH. The patient was successfully treated with high-dose steroid therapy.