Influence of chronic low-grade inflammation on the systemic inflammatory response

The chronic inflammatory state is a common condition in obesity. It has become a health problem with pandemic proportions that, in some developing countries, jointly to overweight, affects more than 50% of their population. As a part of the scenario, we observe how a significant proportion of people with overweight or obesity have raised the acute inflammatory response markers. This situation shows us how this chronic condition can trigger aggressive inflammatory phenomena in critically ill patients with other clinical conditions, occasioning torpid clinical evolution, ominous results, and low-rate survival. This chapter pretends to describe the influence of a low-grade inflammatory state on the clinical outcome of patients who develop a systemic inflammatory response.