Shi QF, et al. - In this study including 112 consecutive patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) requiring invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), researchers compared the predictive efficacy of the v-DECAF score [ventilator (v)-DECAF score, in which ‘anemia’ replaces ‘acidaemia’] and the DECAF score. Ninety-day all-cause mortality was the clinical endpoint. They found that 90 day all-cause mortality was independently predicted by the v-DECAF score in the multivariate logistic regression analysis. The estimated AUROC (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) of the v-DECAF and DECAF scores were 0.852 and 0.777, respectively. For 90 day all-cause mortality, a better predictive value of v-DECAF score vs the DECAF score was evident. Overall, in the prediction of 90 day all-cause mortality in AECOPD patients needing IMV, good discriminatory power of v-DECAF score was observed.