Predicting end-of-life in patients with an exacerbation of COPD by routine clinical assessment.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to determine if routine clinical assessment could reliably predict in-hospital death in patients admitted with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD).

Methods: In a case-crossover study the case records of AECOPD related deaths were reviewed. Clinical and laboratory variables including performance status (WHO-PS) and a composite physiological score (early warning score, EWS) at initial clinical assessment on final admission (FA) and penultimate admission (PA) for AECOPD were compared.