A Rapid Sepsis Diagnostic Test for Better Patient Outcomes

Sepsis is one of the leading and most expensive causes of death in the US. The body’s extreme autoimmune response to an infection results in this life-threatening condition, and timely diagnosis and treatment are vital to prevent fatal sepsis.

At the forefront of sepsis research is Roy Davis, MD, PhD, MHA, chief medical officer of Immunexpress Inc. Immunexpress develops technology that analyzes a patient’s immune system.

In an exclusive interview at the IDWeek 2022 conference, Davis highlighted the work they are doing to separate infectious systemic inflammation from non-infectious systemic inflammation, with the goal of early acute sepsis diagnosis.

“The diagnosis of sepsis is basically a clinical diagnosis,” Davis said, explaining that receiving the results of a diagnostic test can take days. “It’s been shown very clearly that early intervention, with appropriate antibiotics, impacts the outcome of this disease.”

“We have a test that makes the diagnosis within an hour, and allows early intervention with appropriate antibiotics and impacts mortality and morbidity,” explained Davis. In addition to improving patient outcomes, a rapid sepsis diagnostic test can improve diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship. “It enables us to say, ‘if it’s not sepsis, I need to look for something else, if it is sepsis, I don’t need to go through all those other things that we frequently do, just in case.’”

The next step for Davis and his team is to develop a rapid sepsis diagnostic test that can detect whether the infection is bacterial or viral. “We’re in the process of looking at genes that respond to viral versus bacterial to help us make that differentiation.”

Davis prevented this study, “Multi-Site, Retrospective and Prospective Clinical Validation of SeptiCyte RAPID to Differentiate Sepsis from Non-Infectious Systemic Inflammation,” at IDWeek 2022, held October 19-23, 2022, in Washington, D.C.