Validation of the NULL-EASE Score for Predicting Survival in a Multiethnic Asian Cohort of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

backgroundNULL-PLEASE is a simple and accurate clinical scoring system developed in a Western cohort of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The need for blood test results limits its use in early stages of care. We adapted and validated the NULL-EASE score (without laboratory tests) in an independent, multiethnic Asian cohort of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS AND

resultsUsing the Singapore OHCA registry, we included consecutive adult patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who survived to hospital admission between April 2010 to December 2020. In-hospital mortality was the primary outcome. Logistic regression analyses were performed with STATA MP v18. Of 3274 patients (median age 64, interquartile range 54-75; 67.9% male) included in the study, 2476 (75.6%) had in-hospital mortality. NULL-EASE score was significantly lower in survivors compared with nonsurvivors (median [inter quartile range] 3 [1-4] versus 6 [4-7];

conclusionsThe NULL-EASE score has good discriminative performance (sensitivity and accuracy) in our multiethnic Asian cohort, but the cutoff of ≥3 falls short of the desired level of specificity for therapeutic decision-making.