Bulletin of the World Health Organization

Emergency triage assessment for hypoxaemia in neonates and young children in a Kenyan hospital: an observational study

Michael K Mwaniki, D James Nokes, James Ignas, Patrick Munywoki, Mwanajuma Ngama, Charles RJC Newton, Kathryn Maitland & James A Berkley

Volume 87, Number 4, April 2009, 263-270

Table 3. Performance of clinical predictors of hypoxaemia in children less than 1 week of agea admitted to Kilifi District Hospital, Kenya

Clinical signs No. with sign No. without sign True positives False positives True negatives False negatives Sensitivity, % Specificity, % PPV, % NPV, %
Cyanosis, heart rate < 100 beats/min, irregular breathing 107 356 47 60 298 58 45 83 44 84
Respiratory rate > 80 breaths/min, or any of the signs listed above in this column 122 341 49 73 285 56 47 80 40 84
Unresponsiveness to painful stimuli, absent cry, or any of the signs listed above in this column 143 320 58 85 273 47 55 76 41 88
Capillary refill ≥ 3 seconds, or any of the signs listed above in this column 159 304 64 95 263 41 63 74 40 90
History of birth asphyxia, or any of the signs listed above in this column 194 269 81 113 245 24 79 66 42 91
Inability to breastfeed, or any of the signs listed above in this column 286 177 97 189 169 8 94 45 34 96

NPV, negative predictive value; PPV, positive predictive value.
a n = 463; 105 (23%) of the children admitted were hypoxaemic.