CRP and bacterial infectious disease with sepsis: When comparing the AUC in severe bacterial sepsis/septic shock for the biomarkers (Fig 4D), lactate had the highest AUC (0.81; 95% CI 0.77–0.85) among the single biomarkers and was significantly better than PCT (p = 0.01), the NLCR (p < 0.01) and CRP (p < 0.001).