Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Aug;53(8):2404-9.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.03681-14. Epub 2015 Jan 28.

Laboratory Diagnosis of Sepsis? No SIRS, Not Just Yet

W Michael Dunne Jr  1
Affiliations
Review

Laboratory Diagnosis of Sepsis? No SIRS, Not Just Yet

W Michael Dunne Jr. J Clin Microbiol. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

In order to maximize the benefit of prompt antimicrobial therapy and avoid the risk associated with inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents, patients with suspected sepsis must be rapidly differentiated from patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). In combination with standard microbiological testing, a number of biomarkers have been recently evaluated for this purpose, and the performance characteristics of the most promising of these are reviewed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Venn diagram illustrating that sepsis lies at the intersection of infection and the systemic infection response syndrome (SIRS). Culture-proven infection is not a requirement, but a high clinical suspicion of infection suffices to define sepsis. The source of infection need not be blood/bacteremia but could be respiratory or abdominal or involve other sites. Many other noninfectious clinical conditions can lead to a clinical picture of SIRS, including major trauma or surgery, extensive burns, and pancreatitis, to name a few.
None
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Vincent J-L, Sakr Y, Sprung CL, Ranieri VM, Reinhart K, Gerlach H, Moreno R, Carlet J, Le Gall J-R, Payen D. 2006. Sepsis in European intensive care units: results of the SOAP study. Crit Care Med 34:344–353. doi:10.1097/01.CCM.0000194725.48928.3A. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hall TC, Bilku DK, Al-Leswas D, Horst C, Dennison AR. 2011. Biomarkers for the differentiation of sepsis and SIRS: the need for the standardization of diagnostic studies. Ir J Med Sci 180:793–798. doi:10.1007/s11845-011-0741-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ratzinger F, Schuardt M, Eichbichler K, Tsirkinidou I, Bauer M, Haslacher H, Mitteregger D, Binder M, Burgmann H. 2013. Utility of sepsis biomarkers and the infection probability score to discriminate sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome in standard care patients. PLoS One 8:e82946. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082946. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Williams & Wilkins Co. 1992. American College of Chest Physicians/Society of Critical Care Medicine Consensus Conference: definitions for sepsis and organ failure and guidelines for the use of innovative therapies in sepsis. Crit Care Med 20:864–874. - PubMed
    1. Dellinger RP, Levy MM, Rhodes A, Annane D, Gerlach H, Opal S, Sevransky JE, Sprung CL, Douglas IS, Jaeschke R, Osborn TM, Nunnally ME, Townsend SR, Reihnart K, Kleinpell RM, Angus DC, Deutschman CS, Machado FR, Rubenfeld GD, Webb SA, Beale RJ, Vincent J-L, Moreno R, Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines Committee including The Pediatric Subgroup. 2013. Surviving sepsis campaign: international guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock, 2012. Crit Care Med 41:580–624. doi:10.1097/CCM.0b013e31827e83af. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms