A nomogram for predicting mortality risk within 30 days in sepsis patients admitted in the emergency department: A retrospective analysis

Objective: To establish and validate an individualized nomogram to predict mortality risk within 30 days in patients with sepsis from the emergency department. Methods: Data of 1205 sepsis patients who were admitted to the emergency department in a tertiary hospital between Jun 2013 and Sep 2021 were collected and divided into a training group and a validation group at a ratio of 7:3. The independent risk factors related to 30-day mortality were identified by univariate and multivariate analysis in the training group and used to construct the nomogram. The model was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, calibration chart and decision curve analysis. The model was validated in patients of the validation group and its performance was confirmed by comparing to other models based on SOFA score and machine learning methods. Results: The independent risk factors of 30-day mortality of sepsis patients included pro-brain natriuretic peptide, lactic acid, oxygenation index (PaO2/FiO2), mean arterial pressure, and hematocrit. The AUCs of the nomogram in the training and verification groups were 0.820 (95% CI: 0.780–0.860) and 0.849 (95% CI: 0.783–0.915), respectively, and the respective P-values of the calibration chart were 0.996 and 0.955. The DCA curves of both groups were above the two extreme curves, indicating high clinical efficacy. The AUC values were 0.847 for the model established by the random forest method and 0.835 for the model established by the stacking method. The AUCs of SOFA model in the model and validation groups were 0.761 and 0.753, respectively. Conclusion: The sepsis nomogram can predict the risk of death within 30 days in sepsis patients with high accuracy, which will be helpful for clinical decision-making.