systemic inflammatory response syndrome

noun

: a severe systemic response to a condition (as trauma, an infection, or a burn) that provokes an acute inflammatory reaction indicated by the presence of two or more of a group of symptoms including abnormally increased or decreased body temperature, heart rate greater than 90 beats per minute, respiratory rate greater than 20 breaths per minute or a reduced concentration of carbon dioxide in the arterial blood, and the white blood cell count greatly decreased or increased or consisting of more than ten percent immature neutrophils

—abbreviation SIRS see sepsis