MONOCYTE DISTRIBUTION WIDTH – NEW SEPSIS BIOMARKER
Abstract:
Sepsis is a global health problem, annually over 45 million patients are diagnosed and over
11 million deaths are recorded. Activation of monocytes in sepsis by the pathogen agent or hypoxia
brings about functional, morphological and phenotypic changes in these cells. Monocyte Distribution
Width (MDW) is a new biomarker, defined as a measure of monocyte size heterogeneity and has been
approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the early diagnosis of sepsis in the adult patient in
the emergency department. In intensive care services, this biomarker can be used as a prognostic
index in the follow-up of patients with sepsis. The indicator is a measure of the increased
morphological variability of monocytes in response to infections, regardless of bacterial, viral or
fungal etiology. This new marker also has increased values in the infection with COVID-19 and
correlates positively with the severity of the disease.
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