**2. Current sepsis evaluation and scoring**

In the landmark Sepsis-1 paper, the authors stressed the importance of having a specific definition for sepsis to identify where along the sepsis continuum a patient presents [3]. Since the formalized definitions of SIRS and sepsis were published in 1991, a multitude of different scoring systems have been proposed, tested, and validated to predict deterioration and/or risk of mortality. Each system offers a distinct group of variables with weighted sums or point systems attempting to optimally determine which patients are at the highest risk of deterioration.

Variables used as criteria for scoring have transformed with the evolution of sepsis' definition. The pivot in sepsis' definition from SIRS with concomitant infection to focusing more on the spectrum of end-organ dysfunction resulted in an increased reliance on laboratory values in diagnosis of sepsis. Inclusion or exclusion of each variable in a scoring system was the result of iterative assessments of the variable's ability to predict the risk of an adverse outcome (deterioration and/or death) and its sensitivity in allowing for timely intervention (**Figure 1**).
