Table 1.

Characteristics of included studies

Marker	Study	Country	Setting	Population	NO.	Male (%)	Age (year)	Outcome	Mortality (%)
NT-proBNP	Varpula 2007 [28]	Finland	24 ICUs	Severe sepsis or septic shock	254	69	59 ± 15	In-hospital mortality	26
	Mokart 2007 [29]	France	ICU	Cancer patients developing septic shock	51	63	56 (50 - 68)†	ICU mortality	51
	Roch 2005 [31]	France	General ICU	Septic shock	39	82.1	63 ± 12	ICU mortality	56
	Brueckmann 2005 [32]	Germany	Three departments in one hospital‡	Severe sepsis	57	74	55.0 ± 16.3	28-day mortality	28
	Sturgess 2010b* [23]	Australia	ICU	Septic shock	21	61.9	65 ± 17	In-hospital mortality	29
BNP	Perman 2011 [22]	USA	Emergency departments of 10 centers	Clinical evidence of sepsis	825	49	53.5 ± 19.6	A composite of events §	6.6
	Zhao 2009 [24]	China	Surgical ICU	Severe sepsis or septic shock	102	53.9	─	28-day mortality	38.2
	Chen 2009 [25]	China	Emergency department	Sepsis	327	60.6	69.5 ± 13.4	28-day mortality	37.3
	Yucel 2008 [26]	Turkey	General ICU	Sepsis	40	─	─	28-day mortality	50
	Post 2008 [27]	Germany	ICU	Septic shock	93	55	65(53 - 73.5)†	30-day mortality	40.9
	Ueda 2006 [30]	Japan	Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine	Septic shock	22	77.3	62.5 ± 19.3	28-day mortality	54.5
	Charpentier 2004 [33]	France	Medical ICU	Severe sepsis or septic shock	34	47.1	56 ± 15.7	28-day mortality	29
	Sturgess 2010a* [23]	Australia	ICU	Septic shock	21	61.9	65 ± 17	In-hospital mortality	29

BNP = brain natriuretic peptide, NT-proBNP = N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, ICU = intensive care unit. *The study reported both BNP (Sturgess 2010a) and NT-proBNP (Sturgess 2010b). ^† Median (25th - 75th percentiles). ^¶ Dash indicates that information was not provided. ^§ Events include in-hospital mortality, severe sepsis, or septic shock within 30 days following presentation. ^‡ Anesthesiology Department, Cardiosurgical Anesthesiology Department, and Internal Medicine Department.