Calculation
The point score is calculated from 12 routine physiological measurements, such as blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, etc., during the first 24 hours after admission, information about previous health status, and some information obtained at admission (such as age). The calculation method is optimized for paper schemas, by using integer values and reducing the number of options so that data fits on a single-sheet paper form. The resulting point score should always be interpreted in relation to the illness of the patient.
The score is not recalculated during the stay—it is by definition an admission score. If a patient is discharged from the ICU and readmitted, a new APACHE II score is calculated.
The appendix of the document (see references) that originally described the APACHE II score, attempts to describe how to calculate a predicted death rate for a patient. In order to improve the accuracy of this calculation of predicted mortality, the principal diagnosis leading to ICU admission was added as a category weight: the predicted mortality is computed based on the patient's APACHE II score and their principal diagnosis at admission.
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