Early identification of sepsis

Abstract

Early diagnosis is crucial to reduce morbidity and mortality from sepsis. Clinical suspicion is the first step to diagnosis, and necessitates meticulous history taking and complete clinical examination. Special attention should be paid to identifying foci of infection. Biomarkers of host response-including acute phase proteins, procalcitonin, and various cytokines-may be useful in the diagnosis and management of patients with sepsis. Rapid and reliable detection of pathogens and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns is also of utmost importance. Many new techniques have been developed to shorten the time required for pathogen detection, including nucleic acid-based technologies (eg, polymerase chain reaction, microarrays, and hybridization). The detection of pathogen-related antigens is another approach that is useful in the diagnosis of fungal infections, targeting fungal cell wall components such as galactomannan and (1→3)-β-D-glucan.