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Sepsis Biomarkers

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Handbook of Sepsis

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Abstract

Accurate and early diagnosis of sepsis is essential to enable rapid initiation of appropriate therapy. Biomarkers can be used to aid in diagnosis, but also to provide an indication of severity and prognosis and of response to treatment. C-reactive protein and procalcitonin are the biomarkers that have been most widely studied in sepsis, but there are many other potential candidates, including CD64 expression, adrenomedullin, sTREM-1, and presepsin. All currently available biomarkers reflect the magnitude of the host response to an aggression and are affected by inflammatory conditions other than sepsis. This lack of specificity makes them more useful to rule out than to rule in infection as a diagnosis. Panels of biomarkers may be better than individual biomarkers to aid diagnosis, but which combinations of biomarkers are likely to be of greatest use remains a matter of ongoing research. Whichever biomarker(s) is used, levels must be interpreted in the context of the full clinical picture and never in isolation.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare related to this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Louis Vincent M.D., Ph.D.

  2. Laboratoire de Médecine Expérimentale (ULB 222 Unit), Université Libre de Bruxelles, CHU de Charleroi, A. Vésale Hospital, Montigny-Le-Tilleul, Belgium

    Christophe Lelubre M.D.

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Correspondence to Jean-Louis Vincent M.D., Ph.D. .

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  1. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    W. Joost Wiersinga

  2. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Christopher W. Seymour

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Vincent, JL., Lelubre, C. (2018). Sepsis Biomarkers. In: Wiersinga, W., Seymour, C. (eds) Handbook of Sepsis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73506-1_6

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