1. Microbiological Diagnosis of Sepsis: The Confounding Effect of a "Gold Standard"

Nicasio Mancini, Roberto Burioni, and Massimo Clementi

2. Pathopysiological Aspects of Sepsis: An Overview

Ying-Yi Luan, Yong-Ming Yao, Qing-Hong Zhang, and Zhi-Yong Sheng

3. Clinical Aspects of Sepsis: An Overview

Giacomo Monti, Giovanni Landoni, Daiana Taddei, Francesca Isella, and Alberto Zangrillo

4. Technical Improvements in Culturing Blood

Giacomo Pardini

5. Matrix-Assisted Laser-Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS)-Based Identification of Pathogens from Positive Blood Culture Bottles

Philippe Lagacé-Wiens

6. Bacterial and Fungal DNA Extraction from Positive Blood Culture Bottles: A Manual and an Automated Protocol

Minna Mäki

7. Broad-Range-PCR in the Identification of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens from Positive Blood Culture Bottles: A Sequencing Approach

Yoshitomo Morinaga and Katsunori Yanagihara

8. Identification of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens from Positive Blood Culture Bottles: A Microarray-Based Approach

Teresa Raich and Scott Powell

9. Detection of Carbapenemases Using Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) Meropenem Hydrolysis Assay

Jroslav Hrabák

10. Molecular Detection of Antibiotic Resistance Genes from Positive Blood Cultures

Musa Y. Hindiyeh, Gill Smollan, Shiraz Gefen-Halevi, Ella Mendelson, and Nathan Keller

11. Bacterial and Fungal DNA Extraction from Blood Samples: Manual Protocols

Michael G. Lorenz, Helge Mühl, and Claudia Disqué

12. Bacterial and Fungal DNA Extraction from Blood Samples: Automated Protocols

Michael G. Lorenz, Claudia Disqué, and Helge Mühl

13. Broad-Range-PCR in the Identification of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens from Blood Samples: A Sequencing Approach

Eva Leitner and Harald H. Kessler

14. Real-Time PCR-Based Identification of Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens from Blood Samples

Madeleine Mai, Iris Müller, Daniela Maneg, Achim Haecker, Gerd Haberhausen, and Klaus-Peter Hunfeld

15. Host Response Biomarkers in the Diagnosis of Sepsis: A General Overview

Marianna Parlato and Jean-Marc Cavaillon

16. Host Response Biomarkers in Sepsis: The Role of Procalcitonin

Jean-Louis Vincent, Marc Van Nuffelen, and Christophe Lelubre

17. Host Response Biomarkers in Sepsis: Overview on sTREM-1 Detection

Jérémie Lemarié, Damien Barraud, and Sébastien Gibot

18. Host Response Biomarkers in Sepsis: suPAR Detection

Evangelos J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis and Marianna Georgitsi

19. Clinical Diagnosis of Sepsis and the Combined Use of Biomarkers, Culture- and Non-Culture-Based Assays

Frank Bloos