Biomarkers in Sepsis and Severe Infection: Where Immunology Meets Diagnostics

Biomarkers in Sepsis and Severe Infection: Where Immunology Meets Diagnostics

Our rapidly-increasing understanding of inflammatory and antiinflammatory systems and their interactions in states of disease and health provides researchers and clinicians alike new opportunities to more accurately diagnose, and more specifically treat, diffuse panoply of diseases. One area of great interest for further research is the identification and implementation of diagnostic biomarkers for severe infections and sepsis. In both cases clinicians face the difficulty of defining, in precise terms specific to individual patients, the etiology and severity of illness, relying currently on a combination of non-specific diagnostic testing, physical exam, and clinical history.