Molecular biomarker to assist in diagnosing abdominal sepsis upon ICU admission

Abstract

Abdominal infection is the second most common cause of sepsis. Although procalcitonin (PCT) has been widely studied as a biomarker for detecting sepsis, studies on the value of this protein in diagnosing abdominal sepsis have yielded conflicting results. We analyzed blood leukocyte transcriptomes of critically ill patients to identify a molecular biomarker for the rapid assistance in diagnosing abdominal sepsis at ICU admission. Abdominal sepsis was defined as an intra-abdominal infection with a post hoc infection likelihood of definite or probable according to previously described criteria, combined with at least one parameter from the 2001 International Sepsis Definitions Conference; patients who underwent abdominal surgery for a noninfectious condition were used as controls. RNA harvest, processing, and expression analyses were performed as described, using U219 96-array plates (Affymetrix).