Common laboratory tests predict imminent death in ward patients

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the ability of commonly measured laboratory variables to predict an imminent (within the same or next calendar day) death in ward patients. Design: Retrospective observational study. Setting: Two university affiliated hospitals. Patients: Cohort of 42,701 patients admitted for more than 24. hours and external validation cohort of 13,137 patients admitted for more than 24. hours. Intervention: We linked commonly measured laboratory tests with event databases and assessed the ability of each laboratory variable or combination of variables together with patient age to predict imminent death. Measurements and main results: In the inception teaching hospital, we studied 418..