title: The association between interleukin-18 and pulmonary sarcoidosis: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the association between interleukin-18 (IL-18) and pulmonary sarcoidosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Medline, Embase and Cochrane databases were searched to identify relevant studies. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they enrolled newly-diagnosed, untreated pulmonary sarcoidosis patients with IL-18 measurement in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) or blood. A randomized effects model was used to pool six relevant studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The IL-18 levels of BALF and blood in patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis were significantly higher than those in control subjects (p = 0.0001, p = 0.04, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This meta-analysis has observed some evidence showing that the published results from these studies indicated the statistically significant association between IL-18 and pulmonary sarcoidosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. dinghua_liu@yahoo.cn
authors.forename: Ding-Hua
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yun-Tai
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000737:chemistry; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D017565:Sarcoidosis, Pulmonary / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D020382:Interleukin-18