Doctors say combining a simple blood test with artificial intelligence could help diagnose sepsis faster and identify patients most at risk of serious complications.
Sepsis is a serious condition in which the body does not respond properly to an infection. It can develop into septic shock, which can damage the lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs. When damage is severe, it can lead to death, with an estimated 11 million sepsis-related deaths worldwide each year.
A new dual approach using a blood test and AI could spot the condition earlier and save lives, according to experts who combined sepsis’ unique molecular signature with AI tools to predict a person’s risk of organ failure and death.
Their findings will be presented next month at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona.
Dr. Lisa Mellhammar, from Lund University in Sweden, said: “It is essential that patients with suspected sepsis are identified before organ failure begins. Given the challenges associated with timely diagnosis and the fact that sepsis kills millions of people around the world every year, there is an urgent need for an alternative approach.”
She said a blood test combined with a personalized risk model “has the potential to save lives by more accurately diagnosing sepsis and identifying who may develop more severe clinical manifestations”.
Researchers studied 1,364 plasma samples from adults admitted to the emergency department of Skåne University Hospital with suspected sepsis between September 2016 and March 2023. Of the 1,073 patients with an infection, 913 patients had sepsis.
The team then analyzed proteins linked to the body’s immune response to sepsis to see if there was a pattern. They created molecular signatures based on their analysis, which was used to train an AI model to predict who was likely to develop septic shock.
Patients were classified as low, medium and high risk of developing septic shock, with the technology able to show how increasing risk was associated with a higher mortality rate.
Researchers also identified panels of proteins that predicted dysfunction in six different organ types, including the heart, liver and kidneys. They then classified patients into five risk categories based on the likelihood that they would have organ dysfunction and infections, and their risk of dying.
Mellhammar added: “A rapid test that provides a more accurate diagnosis of sepsis and can also predict who is at greater risk of worse outcomes now seems a real possibility. Any study like this needs clinical validation and many hurdles need to be cleared before these biomarkers are used in the clinic. But we see this as a tool that can be deployed globally as the future of early sepsis detection.”
Dr. Ron Daniels, the founder and co-chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, said: “It is vital that we accelerate the recognition of sepsis and identify earlier which patients need the most immediate attention, so that we can save more lives as we use antimicrobials. wiser.
“This research has enormous potential to refine our understanding of sepsis and could eventually help us redesign clinical systems. As the authors acknowledge, sepsis is a complex syndrome and this technology is not yet ready for street use, but it is an important step in the right direction.”
It comes as NHS England prepares to introduce the first phase of “Martha’s reign” from next month. Patients whose health is deteriorating and their loved ones will have the right to obtain an urgent second opinion on their care as the initiative is initially adopted in 100 English hospitals from April, before being rolled out nationally.
The rollout is the direct result of pressure put on politicians, NHS bosses and doctors by Merope Mills, a senior editor at the Guardian, and her husband, Paul Laity, who tell the story of how their 13-year-old daughter, Martha , died. of sepsis at King’s College Hospital London in 2021.