A breakthrough in the understanding of how people quickly deteriorate when sepsis has hit it could even lead to new treatments for thedisease, say scientists. Sepsis, known as the 'silent killer', hits when aninfection as the blood poisoning causes a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. It is the leading cause of preventable death in the United Kingdom, affecting some 260,000 people a year and killing at least 44, 000.The condition is very difficult todiagnose until it has spread throughout the body. If detected early, antibiotics can control the infection before the body's immune response into overdrive. But if doctors are not diagnosed early enough, is little they can do to control its spread. Scientists in the United States now that they have already worked out how detect critically ill patientsat an early stage, potentially saving countless lives. Mail launched thecampaign "End the scandal of Sepsis" in January to raise awareness of the symptoms between patients and staff. The campaign was triggered by revelations of the death of William Mead, who died at the ageof 12 months in 2014 after a catalogue of errors, diagnostic errors and lost opportunities for doctors and NHS helpline. Secretary of healthJeremy Hunt in December announced a drive greater public awareness to deal with sepsis, in an important victory for the email campaign.But a test appropriate for the problem could make an even bigger difference for outcomes.team at Duke University in North Carolina nowhas made the first advances to that goal through the identification ofa molecule that is present at levels very high if anyone is immune system is in a State 'runaway' with sepsis. In tests in 121 patients, they found that they could accurately predict 80 percent if sepsis would lead to the death or survival depending on the levels of the molecule, which is called Methylthioadenosine or MTA. Professor Dennis Ko, a researcher on the team, said that in time, this could be developed in a rapid blood test for patients at risk. Collecting suitable patients to treat it could mean drugs that have been abandoned for sepsis might bemore effective than thought. Many treatments that suppress the immune system have been tested in the past, but none have been successful. Professor Ko, of the Duke University School of Medicine, said: 'this area has been a graveyard for the pharmaceutical industry, with more than 100 clinical trials of targeted therapies could not abnormal response of the body to infection'. It may be that these failed clinical trials aren't really failures of treatment, but rather failure diagnostic."With better biomarkers, we are able to group into more refined categories sepsis patients to prove more effective and possibly even resurrect old drugs.' Ko of the Professor, whose work is published in the journal advances in science, also thinks that his team may be able to develop its own treatment of sepsis by injecting artificial molecule MTA people whose levels are too low. They tested the theory in mice, finding that the animals injected with molecule were more likely to survive the condition. Professor Ko said needs a lot more work to be done before a test or treatment can be done in hospitals.' Very quickly,gets very complicated ', said. 'Some people may have too strong of an inflammatory response, some people may not have a strong enough response, and as a result their MTA levels will vary, both among individuals and within an individual over the course of a disease'. Biomarkers could determine where individuals fall along that continuum, and what treatments might work. ' Dr Ron Daniels, Executive Director ofthe trust of Sepsis from United Kingdom, last night welcomed the results--although he stressed that it would be some time before that would be such a test in British hospitals '. It's great that people are nowinvestigating seriously can we identify people deteriorates rapidly due to sepsis,' he said. "Noise that makes people about sepsis is partly responsible for the interest of the investigation.' added: 'This is an interesting novelty that may well pave the way for what we aim to sepsisin the future,' said.'" It is one of several avenues of research that we hope will change the way of sepsis is treated. "
It's great that people are now seriously looking into how we can identify that the people deteriorate rapidly from sepsis
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