TABLE 1.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria¹

Participant criteria
Critically ill sepsis arm
Inclusion criteria2
Known or suspected infection and ≥2 of 4 SIRS criteria
1) Temperature ≤36°C or ≥38°C
2) Heart rate ≥90 beats/min
3) Respiratory rate ≥20 breaths/min or PaCO2 <32 mm Hg
4) White blood cell count <4000 or >12,000 or >10% bands
Exclusion criteria
1) Consent not available or patient declined
2) Prisoner
3) Patient died before blood was collected
4) Patient met criteria for sepsis onset at an outside hospital >24 h before transfer to our medical center
Critically ill control arm
Inclusion criteria
1) ≤24 h since medical intensive care unit admission
2) No known or suspected infection on the basis of review of the assessment of the treating physicians
3) Lack of antibiotic therapy (except for prophylactic therapy)
4) No known microbiologic and radiographic signs of infection
Exclusion criteria
1) Consent not available or patient declined
2) Prisoner
3) Patient died before blood was collected
4) Patient critically ill in a medical intensive care unit >24 h

¹SIRS, systemic inflammatory response syndrome; PaCO₂, partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood.

²Blood was collected within 24 h of sepsis onset (regardless of the patient location when inclusion criteria were first met).