Early Diagnosis of Sepsis: the Role of Biomarkers and Rapid Microbiological Tests

Sepsis is a medical emergency resulting from a dysregulated response to an infection, causing preventable deaths and a high burden of morbidity. Protocolized and accurate interventions in sepsis are time-critical. Therefore, earlier recognition of cases allows for preventive interventions, early treatment, and improved outcomes. Clinical diagnosis of sepsis by clinical scores cannot be considered an early diagnosis, given that underlying molecular pathophysiological mechanisms have been activated in the preceding hour or days. There is a lack of a widely available tool enhancing preclinical diagnosis of sepsis. Sophisticated technologies for sepsis prediction have several limitations, including high costs. Novel technologies for fast molecular and microbiological diagnosis are focusing on bedside point-of-care combined testing to reach most settings where sepsis represents a challenge.