Charlson co-morbidity index (CCI)
The Charlson co-morbidity index (CCI) predicts the risk of death over a one-year period for a patient who may have co-morbid conditions, such as heart disease, AIDS or cancer (covering a total of 22 conditions). Each condition is assigned a score of one, two, three or six, depending on the associated risk of dying. The scores are then added together and given a total score which predicts mortality. For a doctor, the CCI is helpful in deciding how aggressively to treat a condition. A patient may have cancer, for example, but also heart disease and diabetes so severe that the costs and risks of the treatment outweigh the short-term benefit of treating the cancer.
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