Table 2. Immunological characteristics of participants (median and interquartile range).
| Severe sepsis | Non-severe sepsis | Combined sepsis | Controls | Sepsis vs Control* | |
| n | 50 | 30 | 80 | 40 | |
| Plasma tryptophan µmol/L | 21 (13–29) | 31 (23–37) | 24 (14–35) | 49 (40–55) | <0.0001 |
| Plasma kynurenine µmol/L | 3.5 (2.4–5.2) | 2.3 (1.9–3.9) | 3.1 (2.1–4.7) | 1.9 (1.5–2.3) | <0.0001 |
| KT ratio | 162 (100–286) | 82 (55–159) | 141 (64–235) | 36 (28–52) | <0.0001 |
| Plasma IFN-γ pg/mL | 8 (1.3–20.1) n = 38 | 27 (3–84) n = 29 | 9 (3–48) n = 67 | 1.3 (1.3–7) n = 37 | <0.0001 |
| Plasma IL6 pg/mL | 380 (121–979) n = 38 | 136 (44–320) n = 29 | 222 (75–596) n = 67 | 5 (5-5) n = 37 | <0.0001 |
| Plasma IL10 pg/mL | 23 (13–64) n = 38 | 5 (5–25) n = 29 | 16 (5–41) n = 67 | 5 (5 - 5) n = 37 | <0.0001 |
| Neutrophils ×103/µL | 13.5 (8.7–20.4) n = 49 | 14.1 (9.2–16.3) | 14 (8.8–16.6) n = 79 | 5.1 (3.2–6.5) n = 20 | 0.049 |
| Lymphocytes x ×103/µL | 0.9 (0.5–1.2) n = 49 | 1.0 (0.7–1.3) | 0.9 (0.5–1.2) n = 79 | 2.1 (1.2–2.2) n = 20 | <0.0001 |
| Lymphocyte subsets† | n = 11 | n = 12 | n = 23 | n = 4 | |
| T cells ×103/µL | 0.65 (0.34–1.8) | 0.67 (0.34–1.0) | 0.65 (0.34–1.1) | 1.49 (1.0–1.7) | NS |
| CD4+ T cells ×103/µL | 0.35 (0.17–0.85) | 0.35 (0.17–0.59) | 0.35 (0.18–0.67) | 0.89 (0.52–1.2) | NS |
| CD8+ T cells ×103/µL | 0.18 (0.07–0.72) | 0.16 (0.10–0.33) | 0.18 (0.1–0.34) | 0.46 (0.31–0.61) | NS |
| NK cells ×103/µL | 0.07 (0.03–0.12) | 0.06 (0.03–0.17) | 0.06 (0.03–0.11) | 0.08 (0.04–0.20) | NS |
*p values, all sepsis vs controls, Mann Whitney test.
†Performed in a subset of patients representative of the entire cohort, as described in methods and results. Severe sepsis n = 11, non-severe sepsis n = 12, control n = 4.