The authors reply: We thank Drs. Scicluna and van der Poll (1) for their letter and congratulate them on the FAIM3to-PLAC8 ratio (2), which we have shown has potential broad… Click to show full abstract
The authors reply: We thank Drs. Scicluna and van der Poll (1) for their letter and congratulate them on the FAIM3to-PLAC8 ratio (2), which we have shown has potential broad applicability beyond its initial intended clinical scenario (3). We first wish to correct one misstatement of theirs: the Sepsis MetaScore has been validated using the NanoString nCounter platform (NanoString Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA), an independent targeted gene expression technology, in an independent cohort of 96 critically ill children (4). Furthermore, we whole-heartedly agree that discovery datasets are biased toward their classifiers; we therefore reported performance statistics both with and without their inclusion (3). We believe that there is a need for generalizable (not context-specific) biomarkers in sepsis for two reasons. First, the clinical question that underlies the FAIM3-to-PLAC8 Turning a New Page in Sepsis Molecular Diagnostics Necessitates Context-Specific Biomarkers
               
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