Sepsis is a grievous complication of infection
The immune system is responsible for defending our bodies against pathogens: micro-organisms capable of causing disease. However, for unknown reasons during some infections it becomes dysregulated, leading to an unnecessarily violent inflammatory response that begins to attack the body's own healthy cells.
This results in SIRS, or systemic inflammatory response syndrome, which is characterised by abnormal temperature; heart rate; respiratory rate; and white blood (immune system) cell counts.
However, the above signs are non-specific: this means that they could have a number of causes, so their presence does not specifically alert clinicians to the septic state of patients.
A global danger to health
33%
Global hospital admissions
50%
Global intensive care unit admissions
250,000
Cases in the UK annually
Diagnosis
No 100% accurate test for the diagnosis of sepsis currently exists.
If sepsis is suspected, physicians currently rely on venous draws (blood tests) to assess white blood cell count, lactate levels, and the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream. The latter involves incubating a blood sample in medium (a nutrient-rich solution to fuel bacterial growth) and examining the container after a few days to see if there is any microbial result.
However, as with the signs above these are non-specific and therefore are non-diagnostic. They also take time to process, and this is a problem for the reasons outlined below.
Prognosis
The challenge to diagnose the septic state in patients presents a danger magnified by the progressive nature of the syndrome, causing tissue damage. This ultimately leads to organ failure and death, even in some cases with treatment.