Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study subjects.
| Healthy controls | Sepsis patients | Severe sepsis patients | P1 value | Survivor | Nonsurvivor | P2 value | |
| Number | 624 | 384 | 432 | N.A | 276 | 156 | N.A |
| Age | 68.5±9.3 | 62.1±10.8 | 65.1±11.8 | 0.12 | 63.4±10.8 | 68.1±14.2 | 0.09 |
| Sex(Male/Female) | 363/261 | 220/164 | 256/176 | 0.57 | 163/113 | 93/63 | 0.91 |
| APACHE II score | N.A | 10.2±3.2 | 18.6±4.9 | 0.008 | 14.8±2.9 | 25.3±7.2 | 0.013 |
| Length of ICU stay (d) | N.A | 8.6±2.3 | 15.4±8.6 | 0.006 | 14.6±7.2 | 16.8±8.9 | 0.02 |
| Diabetes | N.A | 35 (9.1%) | 46 (10.6%) | 0.47 | 30 (10.8%) | 16 (10.2%) | 0.84 |
| Chronic liver disease | N.A | 9 (2.3%) | 15 (3.5%) | 0.34 | 8 (2.9%) | 7 (4.5%) | 0.39 |
| Chronic renal failure | N.A | 14 (3.6%) | 18 (4.2%) | 0.70 | 12 (4.3%) | 6 (3.8%) | 0.80 |
| Congestive heart failure | N.A | 22 (5.7%) | 28 (6.5%) | 0.66 | 18 (6.5%) | 10 (6.4%) | 0.96 |
| Chronic pulmonary disease | N.A | 28 (7.3%) | 37 (8.6%) | 0.50 | 22 (8.0%) | 15 (9.6%) | 0.56 |
| SOFA score | N.A | 1.4±0.3 | 8.2±1.6 | <0.001 | 6.9±1.8 | 10.5±1.9 | 0.011 |
| Failing organs (score >2 in SOFA scale) | |||||||
| Respiratory | N.A | N.A | 293 (67.8%) | N.A | 156 (56.5%) | 137 (87.8%) | <0.001 |
| Cardiovascular | N.A | N.A | 252 (58.3%) | N.A | 141 (51.1%) | 111 (71.2%) | <0.001 |
| Kidney | N.A | N.A | 112 (25.9%) | N.A | 46 (16.7%) | 66 (42.3%) | <0.001 |
| Neurologic | N.A | N.A | 59 (13.7%) | N.A | 29 (10.5%) | 30 (19.2%) | 0.01 |
| Liver | N.A | N.A | 42 (9.7%) | N.A | 18 (6.5%) | 24 (15.4%) | 0.003 |
| Hematologic | N.A | N.A | 35 (8.1%) | N.A | 14 (5.1%) | 21 (13.5%) | 0.002 |
| Infection Insult | |||||||
| Lung | N.A | 261 (68.0%) | 302 (69.9%) | 0.55 | 198 (71.7%) | 104 (66.7%) | 0.27 |
| Abdomen | N.A | 92 (24.0%) | 94 (21.8%) | 0.46 | 57 (20.7%) | 37 (23.7%) | 0.46 |
| Bloodstream | N.A | 11 (2.9%) | 15 (3.5%) | 0.62 | 7 (2.5%) | 8 (5.1%) | 0.16 |
| UTI | N.A | 9 (2.3%) | 11 (2.5%) | 0.85 | 8 (2.9%) | 3 (1.9%) | 0.52 |
| Others | N.A | 11 (2.9%) | 10 (2.3%) | 0.62 | 6 (2.2%) | 4 (2.6%) | 0.80 |
| Microbiology positive | N.A | 153 (39.8%) | 174 (40.3%) | 0.90 | 101 (36.6%) | 73 (46.8%) | 0.04 |
| Gram positive | N.A | 63 (41.2%) | 66 (37.9%) | 0.55 | 41 (40.6%) | 25 (34.2%) | 0.39 |
| Gram negative | N.A | 73 (47.7%) | 72 (41.4%) | 0.25 | 43 (42.6%) | 29 (39.7%) | 0.71 |
| Fungi | N.A | 7 (1.8%) | 17 (9.8%) | 0.07 | 9 (8.9%) | 8 (11.0%) | 0.65 |
| Mixed | N.A | 10 (6.5%) | 19 (10.9%) | 0.16 | 8 (7.9%) | 11 (15.1%) | 0.14 |
| Microbiology unknown | N.A | 231 (60.2%) | 258 (59.7%) | 0.90 | 175 (63.4%) | 83 (53.2%) | 0.04 |
N.A, not applicable; APACHE, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation; SOFA, sequential organ failure assessment. P1, sepsis group vs severe sepsis group. P2, survivor group vs non-survivor group.