For diagnosing sepsis(Fig. 5a, Table 3), SOFA score was the best predictor (AUC 0.99 ± 0.001, P < 0.0001), and syndecan-1 (AUC 0.95 ± 0.02, P < 0.0001) was a better predictor than was sTM (AUC 0.87 ± 0.04, P < 0.0001), Procalcitonin (PCT) (AUC 0.66 ± 0.06, P = 0.0135), Lac (AUC 0.70 ± 0.05, P < 0.001), or APACHE II score (AUC 0.70 ± 0.06, P = 0.0025). The gene discussed is SDC1; the disease is Sepsis.