Early diagnosis is crucial to reduce morbidity and mortality from
sepsis. Clinical suspicion is the first step to diagnosis, and necessitates meticulous history taking and complete clinical examination. Special attention should be paid to identifying foci of
infection.
Biomarkers of host response-including
acute phase proteins,
procalcitonin, and various
cytokines-may be useful in the diagnosis and management of patients with
sepsis. Rapid and reliable detection of pathogens and their
antibiotic susceptibility patterns is also of utmost importance. Many new techniques have been developed to shorten the time required for pathogen detection, including
nucleic acid-based technologies (eg, polymerase chain reaction, microarrays, and hybridization). The detection of pathogen-related
antigens is another approach that is useful in the diagnosis of
fungal infections, targeting fungal cell wall components such as
galactomannan and (1→3)-β-D-glucan.