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Updated: Jun 13, 2025
Multiplex Therapeutic Drug Monitoring by Isotope-dilution HPLC-MS/MS of Antibiotics in Critical Illnesses
Published on: August 30, 2018
Assessment of Racial, Ethnic, and Sex-Based Disparities in Time-to-Antibiotics and Sepsis Outcomes in a Large
Theodore R Pak1,2, Sarimer M Sánchez2,3, Caroline S McKenna1
1Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute, Boston, MA.
Objectives:
To characterize associations between race/ethnicity/sex, time-to-antibiotics, and mortality in patients with suspected sepsis or septic shock.
Design:
Retrospective cohort study, with race/ethnicity/sex as the exposure, and time-to-antibiotics (relative to emergency department arrival) and in-hospital mortality as the outcome.
Setting:
Five Massachusetts hospitals.
Patients:
Forty-nine thousand six hundred nine adults admitted 2015-2022 with suspected sepsis or septic shock (blood cultures drawn and IV antibiotics administered within 24 hr of arrival, plus evidence of organ dysfunction for sepsis, and hypotension or lactate ≥ 4.0 mmol/L for septic shock).
Interventions:
None.
Measurements And Main Results:
Among included patients, 22,598 (46%) were women, 36,626 (75%) were White, and 4,483 (9.2%) were Black. Women had longer median time-to-antibiotics than men when presenting with either suspected sepsis (203 vs. 190 min) or septic shock (160 vs. 142 min). Differences in time-to-antibiotics for women vs. men persisted after adjusting for age, race, comorbidities, source of infection, and severity of illness (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] for 3-6 vs. < 3 hr; 1.16 [95% CI, 1.07-1.25] for sepsis and aOR, 1.09 [95% CI, 1.01-1.18] for septic shock). Median time-to-antibiotics was also longer for Black vs. White patients for both sepsis (215 vs. 194 min; aOR for 3-6 vs. < 3 hr; 1.24 [95% CI, 1.06-1.45]) and septic shock (median 159 vs. 148 min; aOR, 1.32 [95% CI, 1.12-1.55]). There was no association between race/ethnicity/sex and in-hospital mortality for sepsis without shock; however, women with septic shock had higher mortality (aOR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.04-1.29) vs. men. Higher mortality for women with septic shock persisted when also adjusting for time-to-antibiotics (aOR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.03-1.32).
Conclusions:
In a large cohort of patients with sepsis, time-to-antibiotics was longer for both women and Black patients even after detailed risk-adjustment. Women with septic shock had higher adjusted in-hospital mortality than men, but this association was not moderated by time-to-antibiotics.
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