ACCS Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Test Preparation Guide

The CURB-65 score is a clinical prediction rule that specifically assesses the severity of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in adults, particularly in those who are hospitalized. CURB-65 stands for the criteria used to evaluate the severity: Confusion (new-onset), Urea (higher than 7 mmol/L), Respiratory rate (30 breaths per minute or more), Blood pressure (systolic blood pressure less than 90 mm Hg or diastolic less than 60 mm Hg), and Age (65 years or older). Each of these criteria contributes to determining the risk of mortality and guiding treatment decisions such as hospitalization, the need for intensive care, and the necessity for antibiotic therapy.

Other scoring systems, such as the SOFA score, primarily assess organ failure and sepsis rather than pneumonia severity specifically. APACHE II is more broadly used to evaluate the overall severity of illness in critically ill patients but does not focus solely on pneumonia. The Bristol score is not recognized as a standard score for assessing pneumonia. Thus, the CURB-65 score is the preferred tool for evaluating hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia, making it the correct choice.