Published in:
01-04-2010 | Editorial
The long way of biomarkers: from bench to bedside
Authors:
Haibo Zhang, Pierre Damas, Jean-Charles Preiser
Published in:
Intensive Care Medicine
|
Issue 4/2010
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Excerpt
Reliable biomarkers are very important for clinicians in bedside management, both as a diagnostic tool and as a follow-up of antibiotic therapy in patients with sepsis. Critical care researchers are currently facing two challenges with respect to the search for reliable biomarkers: (1) the biomarkers are to be integrated in different pathogenetic pathways of sepsis and (2) the diagnostic and prognostic values of the biomarkers are to be sensible. For instance, the hope that C-reactive protein (CRP) is a reliable prognostic marker in septic patients has now been challenged [
1]. Similarly, the clinical utility of pro-calcitonin, either as a diagnostic or as a prognostic tool for systemic inflammation and sepsis, has brought contradictory results [
2]. …