Cytokines may have involved in the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury(TBI) in adults. Interleukine-6(IL-6) plays a major role in initiating the acute phase response, especially in the production of acute phase reactants. The objective of this s...
Cytokines may have involved in the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury(TBI) in adults. Interleukine-6(IL-6) plays a major role in initiating the acute phase response, especially in the production of acute phase reactants. The objective of this study was to determine whether serum IL-6 and cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) IL-6 levels were elevated at the time of admission after head injury and to correlate serum IL-6 and CSF IL-6 levels wi th severity of head injury measured by the Glasgow Coma Scale(GCS) score and intracranial pressure(ICP). Twenty one patients with GCS score between 4 and 14(mean=9) were observed for 3-5 days after head injury. The highest level of serum IL-6 was found on admission day 1(8.2±4.9 pg/ml; normal level is less than 0.4 pg/ml±O.2pg/ml) and then it decreased to 4.O±3.6pg/ml on day 5. Serum IL-6 levels decreased significantly faster in patients with 24-hour GCS scores of 8 through 11 compared with patients wi th 24 hour GCS score<8. Patients had markedly elevated CSF IL-6 levels on admission compared with controls(46.6±4.2pg/ml vs <20.6±5.8pg/ml). This studies indicated that patients with severe head injury had markedly elevated serum and CSF IL-6 levels wi thin 24 hours of head injury. which decreased over time. Serum IL-6 levels were significantly more elevated in the patients with low GCS and increased ICP. This study demonstrates that serum and CSF IL-6 levIes correlate with severity of traumatic brain injury and warrants further evaluation to determine the exact role of IL-6 in injury repair in the brain.