Use of Procalcitonin, IFN-γ-Inducible Protein-10 (IP 10), Presepsin and Mannan to identify the cause of infection at the onset of sepsis in resource constrained settings

Abstract

Sepsis is considered to present the most common adverse effects and very costly prognosis during health care delivery in ICUs. It affects over 4 billion people worldwide with an increase of its occurrence by 8% every year. It is a condition that arises when the body’s defence mechanism while fighting against an infection, causes injury to the body. During the immune response, chemicals are released into the blood which widen the blood vessels leading to a drop in blood pressure. This and the blood clots caused by inflammation, both hinder the blood supply to vital organs like the kidneys, brain and heart. It requires to be resuscitated within the first 3 hours of diagnosis and with the rightful amounts of antimicrobials for the right cause of infection. Without early detection, it becomes severe causing organ dysfunction that results to death in 72 hours. This occurs in patients undergoing invasive procedures and persons with a compromised immunity. Currently, the most successful method used to diagnose sepsis is using qSOFA that uses a scoring system of using three of the main sepsis symptoms. It happens to be viable after the first 6 hours of sepsis which leaves a patient with repercussions of delayed diagnosis. This then calls for use of antibiotics where inappropriate admission, for every hour, increases the risk of death due to the increase in antimicrobial resistance. Moreover, it cannot ascertain the cause of infection therefore leaves a high chance of subscribing the wrong antimicrobials. This presents a wide field to be sought into to find a suitable methodology using better defined detection limits to this detrimental condition. We propose to diagnose sepsis using PCT, IP 10, presepsis and mannan to distinctively identify the infection to prevent the effects that follow poor diagnosis of sepsis.