CURB-65: Medical Risk Calculator for Bacterial and Viral Pneumonia

CURB-65 is a clinical prediction calculator for estimating the risk of death for people with pneumonia. This medical calculator is useful at the point of care because it can help determine who needs to be admitted to the hospital for inpatient treatment of a pneumonia.

The CURB-65 score has been validated in several countries, making it useful in a wide range of patient care settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.

CURB-65 is an acronym for the components of this clinical risk calculation.
Each risk factor scores one point, for a maximum score of 5:

- Confusion
- Blood Urea nitrogen greater than 19 mg/dL
-Respiratory rate of 30 breaths per minute or greater
-Blood pressure less than 90 mmHg systolic or diastolic blood pressure 60 mmHg or less
- Age of 65 years or older

The number of points correlates to the risk of mortality due to pneumonia.

References
Lim WS, van der Eerden MM, Laing R; et al. (2003). "Defining community acquired pneumonia severity on presentation to hospital: an international derivation and validation study". Thorax 58 (5): 377–82.

Aujesky D, Auble TE, Yealy DM; et al. (2005). "Prospective comparison of three validated prediction rules for prognosis in community-acquired pneumonia". Am. J. Med. 118 (4): 384–92

Howell MD, Donnino MW, Talmor D, Clardy P, Ngo L, Shapiro NI (2007). "Performance of severity of illness scoring systems in emergency department patients with infection". Academic Emergency Medicine 14 (8): 709–14.