What are the signs or symptoms of sepsis (blood poisoning)?
The patient should have a proven or suspected source of an infection (usually bacterial) and have at least two of the following problems: an elevated heart rate (tachycardia), either a high (fever) or low temperature (hypothermia), rapid breathing (>20 breaths per minute or a reduced PaCO2 level), or a white blood cell count that is either high, low, or composed of >10% band cells. In most cases, it is fairly easy to ascertain heart rate (count pulse per minute), fever or hypothermia with a thermometer, and to count breaths per minute even at home. It may be more difficult to prove a source of infection, but if the person has symptoms of infection such as productive cough, or dysuria, or fevers, or a wound with pus, it is fairly easy to suspect that a person with an infection may have sepsis. However, determination of the white blood cell count and PaCO2 is usually done by a lab. In most cases, the definitive diagnosis of sepsis is made by a physician in conjunction with laboratory tes
