Jiang Y, et al. - Researchers examined patients with sepsis in the early stage of intensive care unit (ICU) admission for the changes in the inflammatory anemia-associated parameters. In addition, they assessed how these changes are associated with 28-day mortality. On the basis of 28-day survival, they divided a total of 198 patients with sepsis into survivor (n = 110) and non-survivor (n = 88) groups. Compared to healthy volunteers, patients with sepsis displayed significant decreases in hemoglobin, plasma iron and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR)/log ferritin and significant increases in plasma erythropoietin (EPO), sTfR, hepcidin, ferritin, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) on days 1, 3 and 7 of ICU admission. They noted significantly lower plasma iron, EPO and sTfR/log ferritin, but higher plasma hepcidin, ferritin, and IL-6 among non-survivors vs survivors on days 1, 3 and 7 of ICU admission. Findings suggest a possible superior predictive value of plasma hepcidin, with high specificity for 28-day mortality of sepsis patients in the ICU when compared with other inflammatory anemia-associated parameters.