Dynamic changes of cerebrospinal fluid levels of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α in children with viral encephalitis or purulent meningitis and their significance

Objective To study dynamic changes of cerebrospinal levels of interleukin-6(IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in children with viral encephalitis or purulent meningitis and their significance. Mehtods The cerebrospinal fluid levels of IL-6,TNF-α of 18 cases with purulent mengitisl,24 cases with viral encephalitis and 20 normal children were detected through Enzyme-linked immunoadsordent assay(ELISA) method,and the relativeness between IL-6,TNF-α and leucocyte,glucose,protein of their cerebrospinal fluid was studied. Results The cerebrospinal fluid levels of IL-6,TNF-α in the cases with purulent meningitis was (208±23)and (364±92).They were significantly higher than those in the cases with viral encephalitis[(80±19) and (253±46)] and in the control group [(52±14) and (20±11)];The cerebrospinal fluid levels of IL-6,TNF-α in the cases with viral encephalitis were significantly higher than in the control group( P 0.01).There was no difference between the cerebrospinal fluid level of IL-6,TNF-α and leucocyte,glucose,protein in the cases with purulent meningitis and viral encephalitis( P 0.05). Conclusion IL-6 and TNF-α participate in the advance of purulent meningitis and viral encephalitis;Detecting the cerebrospinal fluid levels of IL-6,TNF-α may be an objective target to distinguish purulent meningitis and viral encephalitis.