MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF INTERLUEKIN-6 LEVELS
IN CHILDREN WITH VIRAL ENCEPHALITIS AND MENGITIS
Zheng
N, Zhang JY
Jinan General
Military Hospital, Jinan, China
Objective:
To investigate the clinical siginicance of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in children
with central nervous system (CNS) viral infection.
Methods:
The ELISA method was used to analyze the level of IL-6 in serum and
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 58 children with viral encephalitis and
meningitis .
Results:
(1) IL-6 levels of CSF were significantly higher in CNS viral infection group (138.20±23.83 pg/ml) compared to control
group (15.35±1.54 pg/ml) (p<0.05), especially within 48
hours (244.10±70.13 pg/ml) (p<0.01). Even more, IL-6
levels were correlated with the severity of encephalitis. (2)There was a
marked elevation of IL-6 in CSF than in serum (19.34±4.90 pg/ml),
no relationship was seen between the two parameters. (3) IL-6 were found to
elevate even before nomal finding on routine CSF examination in 3 children.
(4) No relationship was seen between IL-6 and leukocyte counts as well as
protein levels in CSF.
Conclusions:
IL-6 plays an important role in acute phase of CNS viral infection, and
could be helpful for early diagnosis and prognostic judgment.