Serial Changes in Routine Inflammatory, Hematologic, and Renal Laboratory Markers in Adults Hospitalized with Clinically Recorded Sepsis: A Longitudinal Observational Cohort Study

Background/Objectives: Serial laboratory measurements may capture within-episode changes not represented by a single baseline value, while routine markers from different biological domains may not evolve concordantly.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed 100 hospital admission episodes in which the source infection field explicitly recorded sepsis. A complete source-record re-audit confirmed sepsis wording in all 100 episodes and identified no severe-infection-only subgroup. Because complete SOFA components were unavailable, Sepsis-3 criteria were not retrospectively adjudicated. Procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count, and serum creatinine were evaluated across three ordered recorded assessment points using random-intercept linear mixed-effects models, with Holm correction across five primary global tests and generalized estimating equations as robustness analyses.