Critical Care

Critical care medicine or intensive care medicine is a branch of medicine focused on acute or emergency care which usually involves the use of life support or organ support systems. Patients are often admitted because they require support for unstable blood pressure, breathing difficulties and kidney failure. Some patients may not require these support systems but enter the intensive care unit (ICU) if they need invasive/intensive monitoring (i.e.: to gain stability after major surgery or trauma). The top five reasons for ICU admission are respiratory failure, postoperative management, ischemic heart disease, sepsis and heart failure.

Critical care medicine is often regarded as the most expensive and resource heavy area in medicine. This is demonstrated by the fact that ICU patients make up approximately 10% of hospital patients but necessitate approximately 30% of the cost1. Additionally, in the United States in 2000, critical care medicine expenses made up 0.5% of GDP and 13% of all health care expenditures2.

Sepsis

Sepsis is the cumulative result of the body's over-reactive immune system to infection. It affects more than 750,0003 people in the United States every year with a mortality rate of 25-30%4 for severe sepsis and 40-70%5 for septic shock (the most extreme manifestation of severe sepsis). It often starts with an uncontained initial infection which then progresses to involve the complex interactions and overlap of three of the body's defense mechanisms: the immune system, inflammation and coagulation. The interplay of these pathways can lead to multiple organ failures and death. However, the mechanism of action of how this occurs is not completely understood as it is hard to accurately predict the outcomes of patients who have similar severity of infection and comparable clinical signs and symptoms. At Sirius Genomics, we believe that the variability in outcomes is in part due to the differences in each person's genetic make-up. These genetic differences alter how each individual responds to infection as well as to the potential treatments. Our expectation is that the products that Sirius bring to market will address this issue and provide more information to clinicians to help them identify the patients that will positively and negatively respond to certain sepsis treatments.

  1. From Society of Critical Care Medicine website:
    Critical Care Statistics in the United States
  2. Crit Care Med 2004;32:1254-9.
  3. Crit Care Med 2001;29:1303-9.
  4. N Engl J Med 2001;344:699-709.
  5. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2003;168:165-72.