Figure 1.

Scheme of the timing of the plasma sample collection, based on each patient’s physiological state. Plasma samples were collected from ten individuals each at four subsequent time-points. T1 is when each patient underwent elective surgery. The time-points T2 and T3 represent plasma collections at two consecutive days at the start of the assumed septic episode. T4 was collected when patients were discharged from the ICU. The numbers represent the elapsed number of days between the time points for each patient. Full patient descriptors including age and sex are provided in Supplementary Table 2 .