For years, scientists have been working to create a device that would make it easier to diagnose sepsis, and now researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have developed a predictive model that they think will help clinicians decide when to give potentially life-saving medication to sepsis patients.
Sepsis treatment usually begins with antibiotics and intravenous fluids, administered a couple of litres at a time. If patients don’t respond well then they may go into septic shock and their organs will start to fail. At this point patients will need to go to an intensive care unit (ICU), where clinicians may reduce or stop the fluids and begin vasopressor medications, such as norepinephrine and dopamine, to raise and maintain a patient’s blood pressure.
