A new blood test could save lives in the treatment of sepsis. It assesses five markers in the blood to predict who is at low, medium, and high risk of death. With this knowledge, doctors could start treating the serious condition much earlier and with more precision.

Researchers from several children's hospitals in the United States have been developing the test—which they call PERSEVERE—for more than 10 years. They recently evaluated it in two ways.

First, they used the test to predict the risk of death in more than 400 children severely ill with sepsis. They then used it on mice with experimental sepsis to compare treatment decisions.

A recent paper in Science Translational Medicine gives a full account of the study and its findings.