Endotoxin-neutralizing capacity of severe sepsis and control sera measured by the LAL assay.

The LAL assay was performed as described in “Patients, materials, and methods,” employing either sera of healthy controls or sera of patients with severe sepsis/septic shock. The concentration of LPS measured in the absence of serum was set as 100%. Presented are the median; the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles; and the range. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney Utest; *P < .05.