Exclusion criteria encompassed patients at high risk of bleeding (see sections 4.3 and 4.4), patients who were not expected to survive for 28 days due to a pre-existing, non-sepsis related medical condition, HIV positive patients whose most recent CD4 count was ≤ 50/ mm3, patients on chronic dialysis, and patients who had undergone bone marrow, lung, liver, pancreas or small bowel transplantation, and patients with acute clinical pancreatitis without a proven source of infection.