Sepsis biomarkers: a review

Table 8 Acute phase protein biomarkers identified in the literature search (with some selected references)

Sepsis Marker	Evaluated in experimental studies	Evaluated in clinical studies	Evaluated as a prognostic factor	Comment
Serum amyloid A (SAA) [194, 195]	√	B(s)	√	Correlated with CRP in patients with septic shock
Ceruloplasmin [196, 197]		A	√	Predicted liver dysfunction in patients with sepsis
C-reactive protein (CRP) [11, 198, 199]		C	√*	Predicted response to therapy
Ferritin [200]		B(m)	√	Distinguished between survivors and non-survivors at 28 days, correlated with SOFA score
Alpha1-acid glycoprotein [201, 202]	√	B	√	Distinguished between survivors and non-survivors at 28 days, correlated with SOFA score
Hepcidin [203]		B		Incraesed in sepsis compared with healthy controls and patients with chronic renal failure
Lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP) [39, 204]	√	C(s)	√	Higher in sepsis compared with no sepsis, no prognostic value
Procalcitonin [21, 134, 205]	√	C	√*	Increased in infected compared with non-infected patients
Pentraxin 3 [206, 207]		C	√	Distinguished between survivors and non-survivors at 28 days, correlated with APACHE II score

*sensitivity and specificity of less than 90%; A, Clinical study with less than 20 patients; B, Clinical study with 20 to 50 patients; C, Clinical study with more than 50 patients; (s), surgical patients only; (m), medical patients only.
APACHE: acute physiology and chronic health evaluation; SOFA: sequential organ failure assessment.

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