Biomarkers in infection and sepsis: Can they really indicate final outcome?

Infectious diseases are among the most common reasons for admission to hospital and can easily lead to sepsis. Sepsis is globally associated with increased mortality, and although biomarkers could help clinicians in the early diagnosis of sepsis and immediate onset of antibiotics, there are always questions to be answered about their usefulness in the prognosis of infectious diseases. This article reviews some of the available biomarkers used in infectious diseases and sepsis in order to evaluate their utility to predict mortality and unfavourable outcome. Several studies present the pros and cons of each compound, but it is obvious that the ideal biomarker, with high sensitivity and specificity, cost effectiveness and with definite cut-off ranges and time of blood sampling, is yet to be found. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. and the International Society of Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.