HOW TO USE BIOMARKERS OF INFECTION OR SEPSIS AT THE BEDSIDE: GUIDE TO CLINICIANS

Sepsis is a serious medical condition where the body's response to an infection causes organ dysfunction. This uncontrolled response can lead to complications and can be life-threatening. To better diagnose and manage sepsis, biomarkers can aid clinicians in predicting patient risk for sepsis. These biomarkers are molecules that can indicate either an infection or a dysregulated response of the body to an infection. In some cases, biomarkers can even reveal the treatment response of patients.

To improve the clinical care of patients with sepsis, this review highlights how clinicians can optimize the use of pathogen-specific and commonly used host-response biomarkers, such as procalcitonin and C-reactive protein. These biomarkers can indicate systemic manifestations and organ dysfunction and can help clinicians make a diagnosis and assess the response to antibiotic therapy. It is important to note that the kinetics of biomarkers are more informative than a single value in predicting sepsis, diagnosing, and assessing antibiotic therapy response.

In the future, integrated biomarker-guided algorithms may hold promise to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of sepsis. This review provides current data on the clinical utility of biomarkers and offers guidance for their optimal use while highlighting the need for further research in this field.

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