Table 1 Definition criteria of four sepsis groups.

Clinical signs of infection (positive if two or more of the following)
Respiratory	Any of: tachypnoea/hypopnoea/apnoea/cyanosis
Cardiovascular	Any of: bradycardia/tachycardia
Shock	Any of: poor perfusion/low blood pressure
Consciousness	Any of: irritability/lethargy/poor feeding/hypotonia/seizures
Others	Any of: hepatosplenomegaly/jaundice/fever
Sepsis screen (positive if two or more of the following)
WBC	Any of: leucocytosis/leucocytopenia
ANC	Any of: neutrophilia/neutropenia
CRP	⩾10 mg/l
Thrombocytes	Any of: thrombocytopenia/thrombocytosis
CSF	Any of: pleocytosis/positive Gram stain
Glucose	Any of: 40 mg/100 ml>Glucose>180 mg/100 ml
Sepsis groups
1: Confirmed sepsis	Positive blood culture/urine culture/pneumonia/cellulitis and clinical signs of infection
2: Suspected sepsis	Clinical signs of infection and positive sepsis screen
3: Uncertain	No fulfilment of the above criteria and no change in status after three days, requiring longer antibiotic therapy
4: No infection	No fulfilment of the above criteria and clinical improvement within three days

Reference values for laboratory results were determined as described elsewhere8,12. Poor perfusion was defined as corpus capillary refill >3 seconds.

WBC, White blood cells; ANC, absolute neutrophil count; CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; CRP, C reactive protein.