The Cardiovascular
ToolsCalculators

CART (Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage) Score

Predicts risk of in-hospital cardiac arrest from ward vital signs.

CART (Cardiac Arrest Risk Triage) Score
Respiratory rate
breaths/min
Heart rate
beats/min
Diastolic blood pressure
mmHg
Age
years
Complete the fields above to see the result.

When to use

  • Identifying hospitalized ward patients at elevated risk of cardiac arrest or need for ICU transfer from routinely collected vital signs.

Formula

Sum of points for respiratory rate (<21=0, 21-23=8, 24-25=12, 26-29=15, >29=22), heart rate (<110=0, 110-139=4, >139=13), diastolic BP (>49=0, 40-49=4, 35-39=6, <35=13), and age (<55=0, 55-69=4, >69=9). Range 0-57.

Pearls and pitfalls

  • Outperformed the Modified Early Warning Score for predicting cardiac arrest and ICU transfer in the derivation cohort.

References

  1. Churpek MM, Yuen TC, Park SY, Meltzer DO, Hall JB, Edelson DP. Derivation of a cardiac arrest prediction model using ward vital signs. Crit Care Med. 2012;40(7):2102-8.