Definitions of sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock were proposed 15 years ago. They were based on expert advice and used criteria that identify progression of the infection along with appropriate responses [5] . However, these criteria are clearly inadequate in terms of allowing detection of severe infections in routine daily practice. A study of a large multicenter cohort of ICU patients with infection [6] concluded that simply categorizing an infectious process as 'sepsis' or 'severe sepsis' did not predict prognosis. A high score indicating a septic condition did not necessarily predict a patient's outcome, even though that outcome might be affected by sepsis-related organ dysfunction.