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Sepsis is a
syndrome characterized by an overwhelming response by the
body to the presence of bacterial products in the blood.
Sepsis may cause multiple organs in the body to fail and
trigger the onset of both abnormal clotting and bleeding.
Sepsis can also rapidly lead to organ failure and ultimately
death. It can strike anyone but is most likely to develop in
association with pneumonia, trauma, surgery, burns or
conditions such as cancer and AIDS.
It is
estimated that worldwide, 1,400 people die each day from
sepsis, with up to 30 percent dying within one month of
diagnosis. Comparatively, more people die from sepsis than
from stroke, breast cancer and lung cancer combined.
Spectral
Diagnostics has fulfilled an unmet need in sepsis for a
rapid and accurate test to identify patients at risk for
developing sepsis. The EAA™ Endotoxin Activity Assay is the
only FDA approved rapid whole blood assay for detection of
human endotoxemia. Endotoxin is the most important
microbial trigger for sepsis. Therefore a test for
endotoxin has the following advantages:
-
biologic
plausibility as a marker for sepsis
-
it is
present and measurable early in the sepsis disease
process
-
increasing
levels of endotoxin are associated with increasing
disease severity
-
endotoxin
levels respond to appropriate intervention
-
provides
information on the cause of sepsis not just the hosts
response
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