SCAI Shock Resource Center

SCAI Expert Consensus Statement on the Classification of Cardiogenic Shock

Endorsed by the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA), the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS)

Outcomes for patients with cardiogenic shock complicating MI have not significantly improved over the last 30 years despite the development of percutaneous mechanical circulatory support technologies and the national standard of emergent angioplasty and stenting.

SCAI convened a multi-disciplinary writing group comprised of leading experts in interventional and advanced heart failure, non-invasive cardiology, emergency medicine, critical care, and cardiac nursing to develop a classification system that will facilitate rapid assessment of patients, reassessment over time, and communication between providers.

The SCAI SHOCK pyramid is intended to provide clinicians and researchers with a unified and standardized vocabulary that will translate across all settings. Additionally, the system aims to facilitate recognition of risk for adverse outcomes, potential for benefit from various interventions and prognosis, with the goal of reducing mortality on an individual as well as a national scale.

Read the document

Download the stages of cardiogenic shock fact sheet

Download the SCAI shock pyramid

Teaching Slides

Share the SCAI SHOCK classification system with your colleagues using these teaching slides designed for easy dissemination.

Presentation slides (PowerPoint)

Presentation slides (PDF)

Bedside Checklist

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Validation Studies

• “SCAI shock classification in acute myocardial infarction: Insights from the National Cardiogenic Shock Initiative”  (Hanson, et al)
• “Cardiogenic Shock Classification to Predict Mortality in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit” (Jentzer, et al)
• “Admission SCAI shock stage stratifies post-discharge mortality risk in cardiac intensive care unit patients” (Jentzer, et al)
• “Application of the SCAI classification in a cohort of patients with cardiogenic shock” (Westermann, et al)
• “SCAI cardiogenic shock classification after out of hospital cardiac arrest and association with outcome?”

SCAI SHOCK Conference

2019 Treating the Spectrum of Cardiogenic Shock

Watch the program

2018 A Team-Based Course on Cardiogenic Shock

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