NEW DELHI — Canadian researchers have in a study
on Wednesday revealed the potential of a non-invasive strategy to detect sepsis
early.
Sepsis is a dysregulated response to infection that can
result in life-threatening organ failure if treatment is delayed. Often
clinicians lack methods for early detection of the life-threatening emergency
which claims millions of lives globally each year.
Researchers from the Western University, in Ontario, Canada,
showed that non-invasive imaging tests that can assess blood flow through
skeletal muscle may help in early detection.
“The study suggests that while the brain is partly protected
in early sepsis, the skeletal muscle could be an early target for detecting
changes in microhemodynamics,” said the team in the paper published in The
FASEB Journal.
Currently, sepsis is managed by early administration of
antibiotics and vasopressors. These medications help manage the infection and
systemic hypotension (low blood pressure) and help increase the survival rate.
However, there is currently a lack of tools that are sensitive to the onset of
sepsis to recognise the condition and triage patients for early intervention.
Thus, there is a global need for accessible technology
(i.e., non-invasive, preferably frugal, point-of-care) to guide early sepsis
identification and intervention, said the team.
In the study, the team used imaging methods -- called
hyperspectral near-infrared spectroscopy and diffuse correlation spectroscopy
-- commonly used at the bedside to monitor tissue conditions.
To probe the efficacy of the imaging techniques, the team
conducted experiments in rodents
Together the imaging methods picked up signs of sepsis in
the skeletal muscle microcirculation. They could detect it even before vital
organs like the brain had been affected.
Investigators next plan to test the combination technique’s
ability to monitor microcirculatory function in patients in intensive care.
