Diagnosis of sepsis using mitochondrial nucleic acid assays

摘要

The invention provides assays to detect sepsis disease states in a subject by determining the relative amount of mitochondrial nucleic acid in the subject. The assays of the invention may include PCR assays, such semi-quantitative or quantitative PCR involving the co-amplification of a mitochondrial sequence and a reference sequence, such as a genomic sequence. Information from such assays may be evaluated to provide a ratio of mitochondrial nucleic acid to nuclear nucleic add in the cells of the subject.