title: IL-18 level correlates with development of sepsis in surgical patients.
abstract: Interleukin 18 may play an important role in sepsis. We measured circulating IL-18 levels in 47 patients with surgical wounds, 27 of them had clinical and laboratory evidences of sepsis. The patients had significantly higher IL-18 levels than healthy control (p1 = 0.001), patients with local infection (p4 = 0.001) and patients with clean surgical wound (p5 = 0.001) both at admission and after 48 hours. Serial observations revealed that in all patients, IL-18 levels increased significantly especially in patients with sepsis after 48 h (p = 0.007). IL-18 levels appeared to correlate significantly with leucocytes counts (p = 0.001) and with C-RP (p = 0.007). These results suggest that IL-18 levels are increased in patients with sepsis and correlate with CRP and leukocyte counts suggesting that IL-18 may play a role in sepsis. We suggest that IL-18 could be used as a collaborative evidence of surgical sepsis.
authors: Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt. may_s65@hotmail.com
authors: Maysaa El-Sayed
authors: Mel-S
authors: Zaki
authors: Mohammed Yousef
authors: MY
authors: Elgendy
authors: Noha Badr El-Deen
authors: NB
authors: El-Mashad
authors: Mohammed Ebrahim
authors: ME
authors: Farahat
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018805:Sepsis / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000601:surgery
chemical_list: D020382:Interleukin-18; D002097:C-Reactive Protein