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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Metabolomics in the diagnosis of sepsis

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IntroductionSepsis is an important cause of mortality and morbidityfor preterm and hospitalized newborn babies. Today, nosingle test satisfies the criteria as being the ideal markerfor the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Analysis of theentire metabolome is a promising method for determin-ing metabolic variations correlated with sepsis [1-6].Metabolomics profiling and sepsisWorks on metabolomics concerning sepsis conductedon animals and humans of different ages (newborn andadults) have recently been published and are presentedin Table 1. In septic patients compared to controls (inplasma and urine) it is possible to observe an increaseof metabolites which are part of the oxidative metabo-lism of fatty acids (such as hydroxybutyrate, acylcarni-tines and acetoacetate). Briefly stated, alterations in theglucose metabolism in critical conditions can be seen asa redistribution of glucose consumption from the mito-chondrial oxidative phosphorylation to other metabolicpathways, such as the production of lactate and the pen-tose phosphate pathway. In the study by Fanos et al. [7]a combined approach based on both nuclear magneticresonance (1)H-NMR) and gas-chromatography-mass