COMPARISON OF NFI SCORE WITH LRINEC SCORE FOR THE EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF NECROTIZING FASCIITIS IN PATIENTS WITH SOFT TISSUE INFECTIONS

Abstract

Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is an infection of skin and soft tissues which spreads rapidly through fascia causing tissue destruction at a rate of 2-3 cm/hr. Early phases of cellulitis and NF have a clinically similar presentation leading to confusion. Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis (LRINEC) score devised by Wong et al, score of ≥ 6 indicates a high likelihood of NF. A modied LRINEC score was proposed by Borschitz T et al but the parameters such as pain, signs of Acute Kidney Injury(AKI) are subjective. We proposed a new score – the NFI (Necrotizing Fasciitis Indicator) score, a value of ≥ 8 is suggestive of strong suspicion for NF. In this study, we found that the specicity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) of NFI score is better than LRINEC score.