[The SOFA score in evaluating septic illnesses. Correlations with the MOD and APACHE II score].

The SOFA score, a new system for patients with sepsis-related diseases, was introduced in 1994 by the "Working Group on Sepsis-Related Problems of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine." The purpose of this study was to compare the new SOFA score with the APACHE II and MOD scores. The data on 874 patients from a surgical intensive care unit in an university hospital were analyzed using commercially available software (SPSS for Windows, Version 7.5.2 and MS Excel '97). To compare the different scores, receiver-operating characteristics (ROC)--analyses were applied. The study demonstrated clear correlation between an elevated SOFA score and the mortality of the patients during their ICU stay (score 0-->mortality 0%, 1-->3.6%, 2-->22.5%, 3-->86.7%, respectively r = 0.445; P = 0.01). The ROC analyses of the APACHE II, the MOD and the SOFA scores were comparable (area under the curve: APACHE II 0.73, MOD 0.77, SOFA 0.71). In conclusion, the SOFA score is reliable and might be useful in the daily routine of an intensive care unit.