Sepsis & Inflammation

Sepsis occurs in response to an infection. When sepsis is not recognized early and managed promptly, it can lead to septic shock, multiple organ failure and death.

For 2017, it was estimated that it had affected 49 million individuals and was related to approximately 11 million potentially avoidable deaths worldwide. 

One in four cases of sepsis in hospitals and one in two cases of sepsis in ICUs result from health care-associated infections. For every 1000 hospitalized patients, an estimated 15 patients will develop sepsis as a complication of receiving health care.*

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major challenge in sepsis treatment as it complicates the ability to treat infections, especially in healthcare associated infections.

A promising new biomarker - Pentraxin 3 (PTX3)**

Pentraxin is an acute phase protein whose levels rise during severe infections in humans.

A test to measure this novel biomarker has the potential to ‘stage’ the risk level of patients developing severe sepsis and septic shock, and its use to determine treatment.

Feedback received following discussions with clinicians around the potential use of measuring circulating Pentraxin levels in serum or plasma, points to a clinical need for a tool that can inform clinicians, and decision making, when a patient presents with suspected symptoms of infection.  Comments include:

“This sounds like a potentially extremely useful test to aid early diagnosis of sepsis.”

“Useful to have a more specific test for inflammation than C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and identify risk patients in the community rapidly.”

“…could be a useful tool in future pandemics – because clinical skills didn’t always pick up who was seriously ill until their oxygen levels were very low. Maybe this could have been predicted by Pentraxin”

Could Pentraxin answer these questions and help better direct patient care by keeping people out of hospital if they don’t need to go; lead to appropriate use of antibiotics and predict the outcome of a potentially serious infection.

We are seeking trialists and collaborators as this product develops.

Find out more about Pentraxin and its potential in sepsis and patient management by contacting us at info@microsensdx.com