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In a 2013 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, septicemia was ranked as the number one most expensive national inpatient hospital cost. This ranking comes in spite of substantial advances in the clinical management of sepsis over the past fifteen years. While adherence with internationally established sepsis management protocols have demonstrated reduction in mortality and hospital/ICU length of stay, compliance with these protocols remains poor. This book discusses risk factors, management and prognosis of septic shock in individuals.

In Septic Shock Methods and Protocols, an interdisciplinary panel of expert investigators describe proven methods for investigating the often deadly mechanisms of septic shock. Drawing on insights from a wide variety of fields-ranging from molecular and cellular biology to the physiological measurement of whole animals-these experienced laboratorians detail the most important techniques for studying sepsis involving endotoxins, toxins derived from gram-positive organisms, cytokines, nitric oxide and other reactive nitrogen intermediates, and the use of primary cell cultures. They also treat a number of significant techniques that are not well described in the literature, including the Limulus endotoxin assay, the bioassay of TNF, the purification of bacterial endotoxin and superantigens, and the culture of primary human cells. Multidisciplinary and state-of-the-art, Septic Shock Methods and Protocols offers both experimental and clinical investigators a gold-standard collection of key methods for illuminating the basic pathophysiological processes that occur following infection. Its readily reproducible methods will allow both newcomers and those with more experience to apply today's powerful techniques successfully in their work.