Predicting the Ventilatory Support Necessity for Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients Using Rapid Shallow Breathing Index

Acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common cause of intensive care unit (ICU) admission due to respiratory failure which often necessitates mechanical ventilation (MV). This study evaluated the rapid shallow breathing index (RSBI) as a predicator of ventilatory support necessity in patients admitted with acute exacerbation of COPD. This study was conducted on 100 acute COPD exacerbation patients who admitted to the critical care department at Alexandria main university hospital. All enrolled patients (n=80) were subjected on admission to RSBI measurement on admission and every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours. The RSBI cutoff value that discriminated best between the need for noninvasive and invasive MV using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) was > 241 breath/minute/Liter, it showed a sensitivity of 88.33% and a specificity of 100%. RSBI may be a good predictor of ventilatory support necessity in acute exacerbation of COPD.