About the Authors

Raija Uusitalo-Seppälä

raija.uusitalo-seppala@satadiag.fi

Affiliation Department of Infectious Diseases, Satakunta Central Hospital, Pori, Finland

Reetta Huttunen

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland, University of Tampere Medical School, University of Tampere, Finland

Janne Aittoniemi

Affiliation Fimlab Laboratories, Tampere, Finland

Pertti Koskinen

Affiliations Department of Clinical Chemistry, Turku University, Turku, Finland, TYKSLAB, Turku Univeristy Hospital, Hospital District of Southwest Finland, Turku, Finland

Aila Leino

Affiliations Department of Clinical Chemistry, Turku University, Turku, Finland, TYKSLAB, Turku Univeristy Hospital, Hospital District of Southwest Finland, Turku, Finland

Tero Vahlberg

Affiliation Department of Biostatistics, Turku University, Turku, Finland

Esa M. Rintala

Affiliation Department of Hospital Hygiene and Infection Control, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

Competing Interests

In response to editor’s question concerning that the author is employed by a commercial company ‘Fimlab Laboratories’, Fimlab Laboratories is a recently (<1 year ago) established limited company, which is totally owned by Pirkanmaa Hospital District i.e. the communities of the Pirkanmaa District. The company has been founded on the base of the former communal commercial enterprice, and before that, the laboratory has worked as the Laboratory of Tampere University Hospital. In Fimlab Laboratories, this research work has been funded by external, non-commercial Competitive Research Funding of Tampere University Hospital. None of the authors own stocks or shares of the Fimlab, no patent applications exist concerning the manuscript subject, and no economical benefits are obtained f.ex. from the PTX3 test kit firm (test kits are bought straight from the market). Thus, no competing interests are seen concerning this manuscript due to Fimlab Laboratories affiliation. Furthermore, this Fimlab Laboratories -affiliation does not alter the authors′ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RUS RH JA PK AL TV ER. Performed the experiments: RUS RH JA PK AL TV ER. Analyzed the data: RUS RH JA PK AL TV ER. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RUS RH JA PK AL TV ER. Wrote the paper: RUS RH JA PK AL TV ER.