Clinical Significance and Detection of IL-18 in the Chronic Patients with HBV Infection

Objective To understand the serum IL-18 level in the chronic patients infected by hepatitis B virus and its clinical significance.Methods Serum IL-18 level was detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) method in clinical patients and healthy controls.ALT,TBil,HA,HPCⅢ,and HBV-DNA were also detected and the association between them were analyzed.Results The serum IL-18 levels of 168 subjects including carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen,chronic hepatitis B patients,patients with post-hepatitis cirrhosis,patients with chronic severe hepatitis,patients with primary hepatic carcinoma and healthy controls were 175.9±55.9,240.0±119.8,265.1±103.3,819.1±334.3,472.8±218.2,and 147.7±60.8 respectively.Except carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen,the serum IL-18 levels of patient groups were significantly higher than the control group(P0.01),especially chronic severe hepatitis group.The serum IL-18 levels of chronic hepatitis B patients and post-hepatitis cirrhosis groups were positively correlated with ALT,TBil,HA and HPCⅢ(P0.001).Conclusions IL-18 may participate in hepatic inflammatory injury process during which IL-18 induces the hepatic cells lesion as it clearing HBV.What's more,IL-18 plays an important role in hepatic fibrosis and closely correlated with liver tumors.