PRAM Score for Pediatric Asthma Exacerbation Severity
Assess asthma severity in pediatric patients
Author / Source: Riley Golby, MD
The PRAM score was developed as a bedside clinical tool to assist clinicians at grading acute asthma severity in the pediatric population.
The initial prospective cohort study (Chalut et al. 2000) enrolled 217 children ages 3-6 presenting to the pediatric emergency department and compared multiple clinical variables against a gold standard in grading asthma severity. They isolated 5 examination parameters with the highest correlation to the gold standard test and created the PRAM score as the most useful multi-variate analysis.
The PRAM score was subsequently validated (Ducharme et al. 2008) for children aged 2-17 presenting to the pediatric emergency department, demonstrating good internal consistency and inter-rater reliability for all patients across this age range. The validation study showed a strong correlation between PRAM score and admission rates suggesting its ability to categorize severity.
Variable & Associated Points
Variables considered include O2 Saturation %, Suprasternal notch retractions, Scalene muscle contractions present, Air entry (using most severely affected lung), Wheezing (using most severely affected lung).
- Mild Asthma = Score 0 - 3
- Moderate Asthma = Score 4 - 7
- Severe Asthma = Score 7 - 12.
- [1]Chalut DS, Ducharme FM, Davis GM.: The Preschool Respiratory Assessment Measure (PRAM): A responsive index of acute asthma severity.Journal of Pediatrics 2000, 137 (6): 762-8
- [2]Ducharme FM, et al.: The Pediatric Respiratory Assessment Measure: a valid clinical score for assessing acute asthma severity from toddlers to teenagers.Journal of Pediatrics 2008, 152 (4): 476-80, 480.e1
Results
Real-time automated computation
The PRAM score was developed as a bedside clinical tool to assist clinicians at grading acute asthma severity in the pediatric population.
The initial prospective cohort study (Chalut et al. 2000) enrolled 217 children ages 3-6 presenting to the pediatric emergency department and compared multiple clinical variables against a gold standard in grading asthma severity. They isolated 5 examination parameters with the highest correlation to the gold standard test and created the PRAM score as the most useful multi-variate analysis.
The PRAM score was subsequently validated (Ducharme et al. 2008) for children aged 2-17 presenting to the pediatric emergency department, demonstrating good internal consistency and inter-rater reliability for all patients across this age range. The validation study showed a strong correlation between PRAM score and admission rates suggesting its ability to categorize severity.
Variable & Associated Points
Variables considered include O2 Saturation %, Suprasternal notch retractions, Scalene muscle contractions present, Air entry (using most severely affected lung), Wheezing (using most severely affected lung).
- Mild Asthma = Score 0 - 3
- Moderate Asthma = Score 4 - 7
- Severe Asthma = Score 7 - 12.
- [1]Chalut DS, Ducharme FM, Davis GM.: The Preschool Respiratory Assessment Measure (PRAM): A responsive index of acute asthma severity.Journal of Pediatrics 2000, 137 (6): 762-8
- [2]Ducharme FM, et al.: The Pediatric Respiratory Assessment Measure: a valid clinical score for assessing acute asthma severity from toddlers to teenagers.Journal of Pediatrics 2008, 152 (4): 476-80, 480.e1