Diagnosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation in sepsis scoring system of a thrombosis-hemostasis center.

Background: Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is a septic complication that is not easily diagnosed. The purpose of the study is to obtain a scoring system to diagnose DIC in sepsis.

Subject And Methods: An observational study with a cross-sectional design was performed at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Indonesia, Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital from February to August 2002. Subjects were septic patients in the emergency unit or inpatient ward of the Department of Internal Medicine, and were taken consecutively. The criteria of sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock were based on ACCP/SCCM Consensus 1991. The evaluation conformed to the Thrombosis Hemostasis Center (THC) scoring system, compared with modified Bick scoring system as a gold standard.

Results: There were 34 subjects ranging from 19 to 78 years old, 32.4% were septic patients, 41.2% with severe sepsis and 26.5% with septic shock. The most common source of infection was pneumonia, where bacterial pathogens were found in 35.2% of blood aerobic culture and 17.7% in pus or urine culture. Gram negative bacteria was the most common pathogen found. According to a modified Bick and THC scoring system, DIC was found in all subjects, consisting of mild and moderate DIC. No severe DIC was found. There was no difference between both scoring systems, with a p value of 0.125 based on the Mc Nemar test. There was no difference found in mild and moderate DIC in sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock of modified Bick scoring systems (p value of 0.987) and THC scoring system (p value of 1.000).

Conclusion: No difference was found between THC and modified Bick scoring system in diagnosing DIC in septic patients. In sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock, mild and moderate DIC complications can be diagnosed with THC scoring system, which are of the same potency with the modified Bick, with the assumption that the modified Bick scoring system was the same as the Bick scoring system.