Paramedic Recognition of Sepsis in the Prehospital Setting: A Prospective Observational Study

Table 2

Patient characteristics.

	Frequency
Patient history^1
Diabetes mellitus	117 (21.1)
Oral steroids or chemotherapy in last 6 weeks	38 (6.8)
Chronic renal failure	23 (4.1)
Organ/tissue transplant	5 (0.9)
Human immunodeficiency virus	1 (0.2)
None of the above	394 (71.0)
Vital signs, mean [SD]
Respiratory rate	21.6 [8.3]
Heart rate	90.9 [22.6]
Systolic blood pressure^2	132.3 [29.5]
Diastolic blood pressure^3	72.8 [14.8]
Blood sugar^4	8.1 [3.3]
Fever at present^5
Yes	163 (27.9)
Recent finding of any infection^6
Yes	155 (25.2)
Signs and symptoms of infection^7
Pulmonary, cough/hypoxia	170 (27.5)
Abdominal tenderness	81 (13.1)
Soft tissue swelling/redness/pain	62 (10.0)
Altered sensorium	56 (9.0)
Urinary, foul/puss	52 (8.4)
Meningitis, stiff neck	5 (0.8)
None of the above	259 (41.8)
Organ dysfunction criteria^8
Diaphoresis	47 (7.8)
Cool peripheral limbs	38 (6.3)
Systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg	36 (6.0)
Knee mottling	1 (0.2)
Periumbilical mottling	0 (0)
None of the above	498 (82.7)

SD: standard deviation
Brackets denote standard deviation. Parentheses denote percentage.
¹Paramedics could make more than one selection for patient history, responses.
responses.
Diastolic blood pressure unavailable when palpation was required, responses.
Blood sugar was often unavailable and only collected in nondiabetic patients, responses.
Paramedic determination of whether patient had a fever at present, responses.
Paramedic finding of any infection within prior 10 days, responses.
Any sign or symptom of infection (both present and new). Paramedics could make more than one selection, responses.
Any criteria of organ dysfunction present and remote from site of infection that were not chronic conditions. Paramedics could make more than one selection, responses.