Sepsis is the primary cause of in-hospital mortality due to difficulties in its diagnosis and the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Studies have shown that every 1-hour delay in treatment is associated with 10% increase in mortality. Sepsis is a dysregulated host response to infection which is the cause of sepsis-associated mortality. Controlling this dysregulated response is the standard of care for sepsis. Coagulopathy (disseminated intravascular coagulation; DIC) is part of the dysregulated response and there is evidence that this is platelet-driven. Thus, targeting platelets may be an important strategy in managing sepsis. This study aims to determine the role of platelets as a diagnostic biomarker and their potential as a drug target in sepsis.
Patients with a diagnosis of sepsis will be recruited and serial platelet function testing will be performed until death or discharge from hospital. All patients will receive standard of care. Endpoints will be death and time in ICU. Furthermore, samples from patients with culture negative sepsis will undergo detailed analysis to determine if there is evidence for a bacterial or viral infection including measurement of molecular markers of bacteria and viruses .
Ultimately this project proposes to determine if platelet function testing can be used as an early biomarker for sepsis. Finally it will attempt to determine if culture-negative sepsis is due to bacterial or viral infection.
