Investigation of biomarkers to be used in the diagnosis of sepsis patients

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response that leads to high mortality and morbidity worldwide, and early diagnosis and treatment play a critical role in prognosis. Because the diagnostic power of traditional laboratory parameters, such as white blood cell count (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), and procalcitonin (PCT), is limited, new biomarkers have emerged in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the importance of soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1), pentraxin 3 (PTX3), neopterin (NEOP), and soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) in the early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of sepsis. Serum samples were collected from 31 patients with sepsis on the first day, from 21 of them who survived until day 7 on the seventh day, as well as from 31 healthy volunteers. Biomarkers were analysed using the Sandwich ELISA method. Quitely significantly higher levels of each biomarker in both the first and seventh-day samples of sepsis patients, as well as in the first-day samples of those who died before day 7 and those who survived until day 7, compared with healthy controls, demonstrated their substantial diagnostic value. Along with WBC, CRP, and PCT levels, decreases in PTX3 and NEOP levels on the seventh day in sepsis patients, and the statistical significance of these decreases, except for NEOP, emphasised their prognostic importance. The fact that the first-day sTREM-1 and NEOP levels in sepsis patients who died before day 7 were higher than in those who survived until day 7, although these differences were not statistically significant (p values: 0.093 and 0.195, respectively), suggested that they may still provide clues about mortality. The literature has shown that these markers are valuable in both early diagnosis and mortality prediction; in particular, their combined use increases diagnostic accuracy and prognostic predictive power. The results obtained in this study significantly contribute to this dataset. Studies with larger populations may reveal the prognostic value of these biomarkers. In the future, integrating AI-supported biomarker panels into clinical decisions will open new horizons in sepsis management.