International validation of FACED score in 672 patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis

Objective: to perform an external validation of FACED score in a large series of patients with bronchiectasis. Methods: Multicentric study in 672 consecutive patients with bronchiectasis (HRCT diagnosis) from six cohorts from Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Data were collected using the same standardized protocol and criteria used in the original paper. Vital status was determined at 5 yr from the diagnosis. The area under ROC curve (AUC-ROC) was used to calculate the predictive power of FACED score for all cause and respiratory deaths compared with the original paper. Patients were divided into there score groups (tertiles).Results: Mean age: 48.4(16.1)yr; MRC-Dyspnea:1.53(1) and 3.4(1.5) pulmonary lobes affected. FEV1 was 54.7% and 1.2 exac/year. 39% colonized by P aeruginosa. During follow-up 100 patients (14.9%) died (67% from respiratory causes). 27.5% and 39.6% of patients had idiopathic and postinfectious bronchiectasis respectively. Mean FACED score: 2.31(1.64). AUC-ROC to predict all-cause mortality (0.81[95%CI:0.78-0.85] and to respiratory mortality (0.84[95%CI:0.80-0.88]) were not different from the original series (0.87[95%CI:0.82-0.91]) and (0.85 [95%CI:0.82-0.89]) respectively. The division into tertiles differenciated bronchiectasis into three mortality groups (0-2 points[mild]:4.9% mortality; 3-4 points[moderate]:21.1% and 5-7 points[severe]:47% mortality; p