CASPER

Clinical Asthma Scoring in Paediatric Emergency Research

A prospective observational study to assess the diagnostic accuracy of clinical observations and asthma scores for children presenting to emergency department in acute asthma exacerbations.

Asthma scores are a way of measuring how severe an asthma attack is. They are calculated by assigning “points” to different aspects of clinical assessment (such as how fast a child is breathing, what their oxygen level is, and how their chest sounds). These points are added together to generate a score, with a higher number indicating more serious illness.

Asthma scores are commonly used in North America and some parts of Europe, however, are not standard practice in Australia. However, they may be useful to guide treatment for asthma, and also as a way of measuring how severe an asthma attack is for research purposes.

This study aims to collect asthma scores for around 700 patients presenting to four emergency departments to work out which asthma scores are best at predicting hospital admission.

Study design

Prospective observational study

Chief Investigator

Charmaine Gray

Timeframe

2023 – 2026

Funding

Through CRE

Site locations

• Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide – lead hospital (CPI Charmaine Gray)
• Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne (PI Simon Craig)
• Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA (PI Meredith Borland)
• Sunshine Hospital, Melbourne (PI Doris Tham)

Sample

700 children aged 2 or more years.

Trial Registration

N/A

Contact

Charmaine.Gray2@sa.gov.au
Sharon.o’brien@health.wa.gov.au