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From one-third to one-half of critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) ultimately receive a diagnosis of sepsis. Because clinical criteria have low accuracy for detecting early sepsis, researchers are exploring the use of biomarkers. In a recent study involving ICU patients in France, researchers assessed three markers of inflammation that have shown promise in this regard — procalcitonin (PCT), the soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells–1 (sTREM-1), and the intensity of expression of CD64 on polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN CD64 index).
The initial part of the study involved 300 consecutively admitted ICU patients at one hospital, among whom 154 (51.3%) received a sepsis diagnosis. Elevated admissio…