The August 13, 2007 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine includes an important article presenting results from the Genetic and Inflammatory Markers of Sepsis (GenIMS) study with new information challenging previous knowledge and assumptions regarding sepsis, the tenth leading cause of death in the US with a current mortality of more than 30%. Drs. John Kellum, Derek Angus, Mitchell Fink, Michael Pinsky and Russell Delude are CCM Department coauthors with a few other Pitt faculty members. Data were collected from 2,320 subjects at 28 emergency departments nationwide. The leading cause of severe sepsis is community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The majority of CAP sepsis patients have elevated cytokine levels, highest in the lethal cases. This inflammatory response was found to extend far longer than previously known.