Abstract
Sepsis is the leading cause of death from infectious diseases. This is one of the most common causes of death.
Time is a key factor in starting treatment early, and therefore recognizing patients with a high risk of development of sepsis who are not recognized as critical at the time of admission. In addition to the established biomarkers such as C-reactive protein or procalcitonin, new biomarkers are emerging that reflect their cell in the immune response.
One of these biomarkers is Monocytic Distribution Width (MDW). Three subpopulations of monocytes and dendritic cells were characterized in peripheral blood.
During sepsis, functional reprogramming occurs between monocytes and macrophages, which causes not only morphological changes but also changes in cell volume. These changes are reflected in the so-called monocytic distribution width, which can be a potential biomarker, or a complementary biomarker, for early diagnosis of sepsis at emergency departments.
This is a parameter routinely determined with a differential leukocyte count. According to the recent literature, a suitable MDW cut-off value for sepsis is approximately 23.0 for samples with K3EDTA (respectively 20.5 for K2EDTA).