title: Perioperative plasma concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 in infected patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize the sequential plasma concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and their relationship with the clinical outcome in patients with intra-abdominal infection who underwent surgical intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective, comparative study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Surgical intensive care unit of a university hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifteen patients with surgically proved intra-abdominal infection were included as the infected group. The comparative noninfected group consisted of ten patients who underwent major abdominal surgery without infection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood samples were obtained from the indwelling arterial catheter before induction of general anesthesia, and 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 24 hrs after skin incision.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Plasma cytokine concentrations were measured using radioimmunoassay. The hemodynamic and physiologic parameters were recorded for comparison with cytokine concentrations. In the noninfected group, the TNF-alpha concentration was very low throughout the observation period, and the IL-6 concentration increased 4 hrs after skin incision. The infected group had significantly higher TNF-alpha and IL-6 concentrations than the noninfected group. The TNF-alpha concentration increased from 129.2 +/- 46.4 to 1196.0 +/- 445.8 pg/mL and the IL-6 concentration increased from 54.2 +/- 24.3 to 560.3 +/- 187.5 pg/mL 2 hrs after skin incision in the infected group. The postoperative APACHE II score correlated significantly with both peak IL-6 (r2=.39) and peak TNF-alpha (r2=.32) concentrations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both TNF-alpha and IL-6 concentrations increased significantly after surgical intervention in patients with intra-abdominal infection. The pulse increase in TNF-alpha concentration and the persistent increase in IL-6 concentration were related to the poor postoperative clinical condition in infected patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Yien
authors.forename: T Y
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000097:blood* / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015592:Immunoradiometric Assay; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood / Q000382:microbiology; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha