Sepsis biomarkers: a review

Charalampos Pierrakos; Jean-Louis Vincent

doi:10.1186/cc8872

journal article Open Access Feb 09, 2010

Sepsis biomarkers: a review

Charalampos Pierrakos Jean-Louis Vincent

Critical Care Vol. 14 No. 1 · Springer Science and Business Media LLC

View at Publisher Save 10.1186/cc8872

Abstract

Abstract
Introduction
Biomarkers can be useful for identifying or ruling out sepsis, identifying patients who may benefit from specific therapies or assessing the response to therapy.

Methods
We used an electronic search of the PubMed database using the key words "sepsis" and "biomarker" to identify clinical and experimental studies which evaluated a biomarker in sepsis.

Results
The search retrieved 3370 references covering 178 different biomarkers.

Conclusions
Many biomarkers have been evaluated for use in sepsis. Most of the biomarkers had been tested clinically, primarily as prognostic markers in sepsis; relatively few have been used for diagnosis. None has sufficient specificity or sensitivity to be routinely employed in clinical practice. PCT and CRP have been most widely used, but even these have limited ability to distinguish sepsis from other inflammatory conditions or to predict outcome.

Topics

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