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New biomarkers sought for improving sepsis management and care

Nature Medicine volume 18, page 999 (2012)Cite this article

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For something so deadly, sepsis is surprisingly difficult to characterize. The body's response to a severe blood infection can be virtually identical to its response to other noninfectious triggers such as trauma. And even though approximately one-quarter of all people with severe sepsis eventually die from the disease, it's not easy for physicians to tell who the sickest ones are.

“You'd really like to be able to identify [severe sepsis] before it's obvious,” says Mitchell Levy, medical director of the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. Right now, he points out, “you have to wait until organs fail until you can really tell how sick someone is.”

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  1. Melinda Wenner Moyer
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Moyer, M. New biomarkers sought for improving sepsis management and care. Nat Med 18, 999 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0712-999

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