title: Prognostic markers of pediatric meningococcal sepsis.
abstract: Having available tools to determine the prognosis of pediatric meningococcal sepsis at admission to the Intensive Care Unit or during the course of the disease constitutes a clinical necessity. Recently, new readily measurable circulating biomarkers have been described as an additional tool for severity classification and prediction of mortality in meningococcal disease. These biomarkers have been associated with increased risk of mortality scores and a number of organ failures in heterogeneous samples of critically ill children. In future, genetic markers may be used for identification of high-risk patients by creating prediction rules for clinical course and sequelae, and potentially provide more insight in the complex immune response in meningococcal sepsis. We briefly summarize the data pointing at the emerging genome-wide expression profiling studies and review the prognostic value of the main markers investigated in pediatric meningococcal sepsis putting them in the current frame of sepsis in general.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital, University of Crete, 71110 Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Briassoulis
authors.forename: Angeliki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galani
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics*; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D011379:Prognosis; D018805:Sepsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: chemokine; children; endothelial marker; gene-expression; genome; interleukin; meningococcal; prognostic marker; sepsis