title: Correlation between serum tumor necrosis factor alpha levels and clinical severity of tuberculosis.
abstract: This study verified the correlation between the serum levels of TNF alpha and different clinical forms of tuberculosis. We described a group of 24 patients presenting several clinical forms of tuberculosis and a control group of 13 healthy individuals. The levels of TNF alpha were measured by bioassay method. The levels of TNF-alpha had significant differences between the tuberculosis and control groups. The patients with abnormal chest X-Ray findings had higher TNF alpha levels (15328.48 +/- 4602.19 pg/mL) when compared to patients with normal X-Rays (3353.18 +/- 1495.29 pg/mL) (p<0.05). Patients that lost weight had higher TNF alpha levels (15468.54 +/- 4580.54 pg/mL) than those that didn't loose weight (2904.98 +/- 1367.89) (p<0.05). The levels of TNF alpha were higher in patients with a positive PPD skin test than in those with a negative PPD test (p<0.05). There was a positive correlation between patients' clinical severity and the serum levels of TNF alpha. In patients with successive measurements of TNF alpha, we observed that there was a drop in cytokine levels, and also a clinical improvement concomitantly. We concluded that there was a correlation between serum TNF alpha levels and chest X-Ray alterations, loss of weight, positive PPD skin test and clinical severity in patients with tuberculosis. There was evidence of a worse clinical outcome in patients with tuberculosis that presented higher TNF alpha serum levels.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoty of Medical Research-LIM 54, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. =dahira@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Dahir Ramos de
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Andrade Júnior
authors.forename: Sânia Alves dos
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Isac de
authors.initials: Id
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Dahir Ramos de
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Andrade
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000097:blood*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha