Diastolic Shock Index

Critical Care Perspectives in Emergency Medicine

Emergency medicine, critical care, and resuscitationists often use the Shock Index to identify patients with increased mortality. The Shock Index is calculated by dividing heart rate by the systolic blood pressure, with a value > 0.8 identifying a potential critically ill patient. In the setting of sepsis, the use of systolic blood pressure to calculate the Shock Index may be less sensitive. In this podcast, we review a recent article that suggests the use of the Diastolic Shock Index may be better in identifying septic patients who require earlier initiation of vasopressor medications.