Master Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) Criteria with Picmonic for Medicine

Patients must display either a temperature below 36° C or above 38° C.

Though it is not classified as tachycardia, patients with a heart rate greater than 90 beats per minutes (bpm) fit this part of the SIRS criteria.

Patients must be either tachypneic, with a respiratory rate greater than 20, or must have an arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide less than 32.

Another manifestation of SIRS is that patients have leukocytes below 4,000 cells/mm³ or above 12,000 cells/mm³ or greater than 10% bands (immature neutrophils), which is called left shift.

SIRS is a subset of cytokine storm, where there is abnormal regulation of various cytokines. Furthermore, it is related to sepsis, an illness which fulfills the SIRS criteria, and is related to infection.