Early detection of sepsis

A method of detecting early sepsis in a patient, wherein said method comprising the steps of:

• a) monitoring expression of markers comprising neutrophil-associated CD11b, neutrophil-associated CD64, and monocyte-associated HLA-DR over a period of time;
• b) independently deriving marker statistics comprising a maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD11b expression, a maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD64 expression, and minimum of said monocyte-associated HLA-DR expression;
• and
• c) applying a decision rule to the marker statistics from step (b) to detect early sepsis in said patient;
• wherein said decision rule is a classification tree that detects early sepsis if
• a sum of said maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD11b expression and said maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD64 expression is greater than a first threshold value, and said minimum of said monocyte-associated HLA-DR expression is less than a second threshold value;
• or said decision rule is a classification tree that detects early sepsis if
• a sum of said maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD11b expression and said maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD64 expression is greater than a third threshold value, and said maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD64 expression is greater than a fourth threshold value;
• or
• a sum of said maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD11b expression and said maximum of said neutrophil-associated CD64 expression is less than said third threshold value, and said minimum of said monocyte-associated HLA-DR expression is less than a fifth threshold value.