Absolute eosinophil count simple and low-cost marker helpful for diagnosing sepsis: JAPI

Sepsis is a dysregulated host response to an infection that leads to organ failure posing a serious risk to life. Culture results are not always available right away, and many patients continue to test culture negative, but microbial culture is still the gold standard for diagnosing sepsis. As a result, the diagnosis of this group of sepsis patients is mainly on clinical criteria and subjective clinical opinion.

Absolute eosinophil count is an easily accessible, low-cost test in rural and urban institutions. In addition to its predictive significance, eosinopenia may be a useful tool in counselling physicians as a swift and affordable indicator of sepsis on admission. Eosinophil production is regulated by interleukin-5 (IL-5), IL-3, and GM-CSF, which are not considerably activated in sepsis, resulting in relative eosinopenia.

Against the above background, Deepti Sharma, Senior Professor, Government Medical College, Kota, Rajasthan, India, and colleagues aimed to assess absolute eosinophil count as a new marker for sepsis diagnosis and also to evaluate the prognosis of the patient about Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA)/quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score.

For this purpose, the researchers conducted a cross-sectional study enrolling 100 patients with sepsis; the mean age of the cases was 51.72 ± 18.75 years. The other 100 patients without any evidence of sepsis were taken as control. AEC and SOFA/qSOFA scores measurements were done for all the patients on the 1st, 3rd, and 7th day, and data was analyzed statistically.

The key findings of the study were as follows:

• The mean AEC on admission day in sepsis patients was 49.5.
• The mean AEC among survivors was >50, and nonsurvivors were <50.
• AEC and SOFA/qSOFA scores exhibit a statistically significant and inverse correlation on the 1st, 3rd, and 7th day of illness.

The findings showed that absolute eosinophil count is a simple, quick, cost-effective, and easily obtainable marker that may be helpful in diagnosis and predicting the prognosis of sepsis, as evidenced by its linear inverse correlation with SOFA/qSOFA score.

"Our study supports the routine calculation of AEC in sepsis patients, but there is a need for more studies to validate our result," the researchers concluded.

Reference:

Sharma D, Joseph S, Fageria N, et al. The Role of Absolute Eosinophil Count as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker for Sepsis and Its Relation with Sequential Organ Failure Assessment/Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score. J Assoc Physicians India 2023;71(12):18–23.