TNF and bacterial infectious disease: At admission to the ICU, serum suPAR concentrations in the total cohort and the subgroups of sepsis and non-sepsis patients were closely correlated to markers of inflammation and bacterial infection, as TNF-α (r = 0.571, P < 0.001), CRP (r = 0.411, P < 0.001) and PCT (r = 0.468, P < 0.001; Table 3).