Laboratory symptoms of sepsis [Infographic]

Sepsis and septic shock are serious, life-threatening reactions to infection that affect thousands and thousands of patients worldwide. Early recognition and treatment of those conditions improves outcomes. Patients with sepsis can present in quite a lot of ways, making diagnosis difficult. There are plenty of tools supported by experts in sepsis management that clinicians can use to screen patients for sepsis, including the Sequential (Sepsis-Related) Organ Failure Score (SOFA), systemic activation syndrome (SIRS) criteria, the National Early Warning Score (NEWS), or the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) (Evans et al., 2021). These tools require a mix of physiological and laboratory variables to screen for sepsis.

Use this infographic as a guide to the lab tests that should be performed to detect sepsis in patients.

Evans, L., Rhodes, A., Alhazzani, W., Antonelli, M., Coopersmith, C. M., French, C., Machado, F. R., Mcintyre, L., Ostermann, M., Prescott, H. C., Schorr, C., Simpson, S., Wiersinga, W. J., Alshamsi, F., Angus, D. C., Arabi, Y., Azevedo, L., Beale, R., Beilman, G., Belley-Cote, E., … Levy, M. (2021). Campaign to Survive Sepsis: International Guidelines for the Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2021. , (11), e1063–e1143. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000005337

Nehring SM, Goyal A. and Patel BC C Reactive protein. [Updated 2023 Jul 10]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 January-. Available in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441843/

Neviere, R. (2023, September 15). Adult sepsis syndromes: epidemiology, definitions, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and prognosis. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/sepsis-syndromes-in-adults-epidemiology-definitions-clinical-presentation-diagnosis-and-prognosis

Ostermann, M., & Joannidis, M. (2016). Acute kidney injury 2016: diagnosis and diagnostic investigations. , (1), 299. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-016-1478-z

Samsudin, I., & Vasikaran, S. D. (2017). Clinical utility and measurement of procalcitonin. , (2), 59–68.