validity and reliability of the persian version of the confusion assessment method for intensive care units

Background & aim: delirium is prevalent in the intensive care unit, especially among mechanically-ventilated patients. delirium is associated with a significant increase in adverse outcomes but it usually remains undiagnosed, making it necessary to develop and validate diagnostic tools. this study determined the validity and reliability of the persian version of confusion assessment method for intensive care units in iran. methods & materials: this cross-sectional study was conducted in open-heart intensive care unit of three university hospitals of tehran, iran. after piloting the translated confusion assessment method for intensive care units on 10 patients and refining the translated scale accordingly, 40 ventilated patients were consecutively selected and screened for delirium by two independent evaluators, and one psychiatrist. inter-rater reliability between the two evaluators was assessed by the kappa coefficient. validity indices (i.e., sensitivity and specificity) of the persian-cam-icu and 95% confidence intervals were calculated, given the psychiatrists’ diagnosis as reference standard. data were analyzed in stata software (v. 11). results: of 40 selected patients, cam-icu detected delirium in 30%. the persian-cam- icu had a sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 96%, and a positive and negative predictive value of 92% and 85%, respectively. the youden’s j statistic of the scale was 71%. each of the four domains of the cam-icu showed a sensitivity and specificity of more than 69% and 90%, respectively, suggesting acceptable construct validity. there was good agreement between the two evaluators in terms of delirium diagnosis with the persian- cam-icu (kappa coefficient = 0.74, p<0.0001). conclusion: the persian version of the cam_icu is an effective, valid and reliable diagnostic tool in critically ill icu patients. application of the scale is recommended for the promptly diagnosis and prevent potential delirium in ventilated patients.