Rapid diagnosis of sepsis.

ABSTRACT: Fast and appropriate therapy is the cornerstone in the therapy of sepsis. However, the discrimination of sepsis from non-infectious causes of inflammation may be difficult. Biomarkers have been suggested to aid physicians in this decision. There is currently no biochemical technique available which alone allows a rapid and reliable discrimination between sepsis and non-infectious inflammation. Procalcitonin (PCT) is currently the most investigated biomarker for this purpose. C-reactive protein and interleukin 6 perform inferior to PCT in most studies and their value in diagnosing sepsis is not defined. All biomarkers including PCT are also released after various non-infectious inflammatory impacts. This shortcoming needs to be taken into account when biomarkers are used to aid the physicia

SUBMITTER: Bloos F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3916369 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature