Early risk stratification for ICU admission in hospitalized children with pertussis: development and internal validation of an admission-time prediction model.

ICU admission occurred in 61/662 (9.2%) children.

Compared with non-ICU patients, ICU-admitted children were younger (median 2.0 vs 60.0 months) and had higher admission WBC (median 18.7 vs 10.0 × 10 9 /L).

Paroxysmal cyanosis (49.2% vs 6.0%) and imaging consolidation/atelectasis (23.0% vs 10.5%) were more frequent, whereas recorded vaccination was less common (23.0% vs 87.9%).

Calibration was good (intercept -0.017; slope 0.992), and decision curve analysis suggested positive net benefit over clinically relevant threshold probabilities.