الفهرس 
Sepsis
Etiology and PathophysiologyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response
(SIRS) of the host to several infections. It can lead to
severe sepsis which remains a principle cause of death
in Intensive Care Units (ICU) worldwide, with one in
four patients dying of severe sepsis or septic shock .
Early recognition of sepsis is not always
straightforward and clinical signs at presentation can be
misleading and very heterogeneous due to frequent
comorbidities. In the emergency setting therefore an
urgent need for a reliable diagnostic procedure,
allowing early discrimination between SIRS and sepsis,
is mandatory. Biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein
(CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT), introduced among the
diagnostic criteria of sepsis could contribute to
promptly identify patients affected by sepsis, severe
sepsis and septic shock who could benefit from quick
and appropriate therapy.
Procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein
(CRP) are the most frequently used biomarkers in
sepsis. Of the many studied biomarkers, procalcitonin remains the gold standard for sepsis diagnosis, and is
considered to be an indicator of the severity of clinical
sepsis.