| Sepsis is a major and increasing cause of in-hospital morbidity and mortality, in terms of hospital admissions in the Netherlands accounting for patient numbers comparable to those for breast and lung cancer. The mortality rate associated with septic shock (i.e. patients with sepsis complicated by strongly reduced blood pressure) is as high as 45%. There is therefore an urgent need to improve diagnosis and therapy planning for sepsis. The MARS project aims to generate tools that provide rapid and accurate information about an individual patient suffering from sepsis, including which microorganism is responsible for the infection and the severity and stage of the patient s immune response. These tools should be easy to use, at or close to the patient s bedside, and should provide rapid information to the physician about how to treat each individual patient in the best way. The program is organized into the following four Work Packages (WPs): WP1: collection of patient data and blood samples from a large patient population. WP2: development of rapid, fully automated DNA-based bedside tests that identify microorganisms and also provide information about their resistance to antibiotics. WP3: discovery of novel biomarkers and the development of rapid and easy to perform tests to provide information about the risk profile of individual patients. WP4: ICT management (integration of all collected information into a central data bank). |
