Definitions established in 1992 by the American College of Chest Physicians and the Society for Critical Care Medicine Consensus, have withstood the test of time. The Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome(SIRS) is a clinical syndrome that results from an exogenous stimulus that causes dysregulation of the body's homeo- TABLE I: DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR SIRS core temp 38°C 0.4 F) or C(96,8°F) heart rate 290 beats per minute respiratory rate 2 20 breaths per minite or Paco, s 32 mmHg wbc z 12.000/mm' 4,000/mm or 10% bands