Laboratory data on ICU admission. Its relationship to mortality.

One hundred and seventeen patients admitted to an intensive care unit were studied, to determine whether there is any relationship between laboratory data taken on admission to the unit and the final outcome (survival or non-survival) of the stay within the intensive care unit. Discriminant analysis of the data shows that patients could be allocated to one of two groups (survival or non-survival) using the two parameters of age and serum phosphate, and that this allocation proves correct in 70% of cases, irrespective of the admitting disease and treatment. The validity of this discriminant function was tested in a further 53 cases and the allocation of patients to survival or non-survival groups was found to be correct in 70% of cases, supporting the first estimate of the discriminant function.