Sepsis

Sepsis is a life-threatening illness. Your body's response to a bacterial infection usually causes it. Your immune system goes into overdrive, overwhelming normal processes in your blood. The result is that small blood clots form, blocking blood flow to vital organs. This can lead to organ failure. Babies, old people and those with weakened immune systems are most likely to get sepsis. But even healthy people can become deathly ill from it.

Everything You Need To Know About Sepsis

Sepsis is a life-threatening systemic response to an infection. This article provides an overview of sepsis, including stages, diagnosis and treatment.

Sepsis Diagnosis

Causes and Symptoms of Sepsis in Newborns

Diagnosis and Treatment of Sepsis in Newborns

Sepsis Prevention

Recovering from Sepsis

Sepsis Epidemiology

Sepsis Pathophysiology

Sepsis at the Molecular Level

Sepsis and Pregnancy

Sepsis: Identifying the Signs and Administering First Aid

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Sepsis

See more featured articles »

Sepsis Complications and Prevention

The Stages of Sepsis

How Antimicrobial Resistance Amplifies the Burden of Sepsis

Lactate Levels and Sepsis

Sepsis and Influenza

Sepsis History

The Development of a Sepsis Scoring System in a Murine Model

Latest Sepsis News and Research

Federal policy to improve outcomes in sepsis patients was mostly ineffective

The first large-scale, multi-hospital evaluation of an "all or none" federal policy intended to improve outcomes in sepsis patients finds that the guidelines are a wash-;on average they neither helped nor hurt despite significant investments in their implementation, according to an analysis by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine clinician-scientists of nearly a dozen hospitals in one academic health system.

20 Apr 2021

Global scarcity of novel antibiotics drives the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance

The world is still failing to develop desperately needed antibacterial treatments, despite growing awareness of the urgent threat of antibiotic resistance, according to report by the World Health Organization. WHO reveals that none of the 43 antibiotics that are currently in clinical development sufficiently address the problem of drug resistance in the world's most dangerous bacteria.

19 Apr 2021

New plasmonic isothermal PCR technology can detect respiratory viral pathogens in 30 minutes

Researchers in South Korea developed a plasmonic isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) array chip, the world's first plasmoinc isothermal PCR technology which can detect 8 types of pathogens (4 bacteria and 4 viruses) that cause acute respiratory infectious diseases in 30 minutes.

15 Apr 2021

INRS professor receives CIHR funding for research on nasopharyngeal bacteria

Professor Frédéric Veyrier of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique has received $711,450 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for a project on bacteria of the nasopharynx, including Neisseria.

15 Apr 2021

Medical EdTech specialist, Continulus forms partnership with the Australian Sepsis Network

Continulus has formed a global partnership with the highly regarded Australian Sepsis Network (ASN).

From Continulus 15 Apr 2021

High antibody and inflammatory mediator levels may predict severe COVID-19

A new study reports on biomarkers could help predict the progression of the viral illness to dangerous levels early enough to enable timely intervention.

15 Apr 2021

Leaky gut and microbial dysbiosis could contribute to cytokine storm in severely ill COVID-19 cases

The gut is a well-established route of infection and target for viral damage by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent for COVID-19. This is supported by the clinical observation that about half of COVID-19 patients exhibit gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms.

8 Apr 2021

Chronic cannabis use associated with higher complication rates after spine surgery

For patients undergoing spinal surgery, the diagnosis of cannabis use disorder is associated with higher complication rates, including substantially increased risks of stroke and respiratory complications, reports a study in Spine.

3 Apr 2021

Scientists discover how Streptococcus pyogenes can obtain nutrition from the skin surface

Streptococcus pyogenes is one of the most important bacterial causes of human skin infections. If S. pyogenes invades deep into the tissue, it can cause life-threatening illnesses, such as sepsis and toxic shock.

31 Mar 2021

Apes mount a much stronger early immune response compared to African and Asian monkeys

A new study out of the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in humans, chimpanzees, rhesus macaques and baboons has found key differences in early gene expression in response to pathogen exposure, highlighting the importance of choosing the right animal model for the right questions.

29 Mar 2021

Corticosteroid therapy in pregnant women with COVID-19

A new study describes the outcome of corticosteroid use in pregnancy.

29 Mar 2021

Scientists review current knowledge of the role of calcium-sensing receptor in immune cells

In a new publication from Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications, Wenxiu Liu, Yutong Guo, Yue Liu, Jiaxing Sun and Xinhua Yin from The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China consider calcium-sensing receptors of immune cells and diseases.

29 Mar 2021

Repurposed heart and flu drugs that protect platelets improve survival of septic mice

Despite continued improvements in antibiotics and hospital intensive care, staph sepsis -; a bloodstream infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria -; still causes severe illness or death in 20 to 30 percent of patients who contract it.

24 Mar 2021

FDA authorizes first machine learning-based COVID-19 non-diagnostic screening device

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the first machine learning-based Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) non-diagnostic screening device that identifies certain biomarkers that are indicative of some types of conditions, such as hypercoagulation (a condition causing blood to clot more easily than normal).

20 Mar 2021

COVID-19 patients have higher risk of stroke, finds study

New research found patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had a higher risk of stroke, compared with patients who had similar infectious conditions such as influenza and sepsis in prior studies.

19 Mar 2021

Researchers find stark disparities in COVID-19 outcomes

Researchers at Seattle's Institute for Systems Biology and their collaborators looked at the electronic health records of nearly 630,000 patients who were tested for SARS-CoV-2, and found stark disparities in COVID-19 outcomes -- odds of infection, hospitalization, and in-hospital mortality -- between White and non-White minority racial and ethnic groups.

19 Mar 2021

Molecule produced by the immune system can reduce potency of antibiotics

Research from the University of Kent's School of Biosciences has revealed that a molecule produced by the human immune system can severely diminish the potency of certain antibiotics.

18 Mar 2021

Which biomarkers can help predict severe COVID-19?

The ability to detect potentially fatal illness early on in the course of the disease would enable a swift prioritization of these high-risk individuals for treatment. A new preprint on the medRxiv* server presents an array of biomarkers that may help achieve this laudable goal.

15 Mar 2021

Tailored approach is required to fight antibiotic resistance

The global battle against antibiotic resistance can only succeed if local contexts are taken into account. "A tailored approach is needed in each country," says Heiman Wertheim of Radboud university medical center. "There is no "one-size-fits-all' solution."

12 Mar 2021

Probiotic supplements increase the diversity of intestinal bacteria in extremely preterm infants

Extremely preterm infants can suffer from a life-threatening inflammation of the gut. A new clinical study has shown that supplements of a lactic acid bacterium may have positive effects by increasing the diversity of intestinal bacteria in these infants.

11 Mar 2021