Recent advances in early screening and diagnosis of sepsis: a narrative review

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. Characterized by acute onset, rapid progression and high mortality, it poses a major global public health challenge in critical care medicine. Early accurate screening and diagnosis are crucial to improving patient prognosis and reducing mortality. In recent years, with the rapid advancement of medical technology, early screening and diagnostic strategies for sepsis have been continuously updated. Diagnostic approaches have evolved from traditional clinical scoring systems such as the The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and routine inflammatory biomarker detection to novel biomarkers including soluble Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid cells-1(sTREM-1) and soluble cluster of differentiation 14 subtype (presepsin), as well as intelligent diagnostic techniques represented by Sepsis ImmunoScore and machine learning algorithms. Based on recent domestic and international research evidence, this narrative review summarizes the latest advances in early screening and diagnosis of sepsis, analyzes the strengths and limitations of various modalities, and provides references for early clinical identification and precise diagnosis of sepsis.