Conversely, a combination of the two categorized variables (cortisol baseline ≥ 450 nMol/L, ACTH ≤ 233 nMol/L) performed equally to PCT (>2 ng/mL), and a predicted probability score for sepsis diagnosis using these all three categorical bio-variables (that is, categorized PCT or sepsis score) substantially improved the initial prediction of sepsis diagnosis in this cohort. Here, POMC is linked to Sepsis.