Clinical Significance of Serum Level of IL-18 in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Objective To study the relationship of serum level of IL-18 with the severity of coronary artery disease(CAD).Methods The 3 test groups including 54 cases of acute myocardial infarction(AMI),48 cases of unstable angina(UAP),44 cases of stable angina(SAP) and control group consisted of 46 healthy people.Serum level of IL-18 was measured by means of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Pearson conrrelation analysis test was used to analyzed the relationship between the level of IL-18 and white blood cell(WBC).Results The levels of IL-18 were significantly higher in AMI,UAP and SAP groups as compared with the control group.Compared with SAP group,the level of IL-18 were elevated in AMI and UAP groups,while there was no significant difference between AMI and UAP groups.The levels of IL-18 were correlated with the variation of WBC count in peripheral blood of CAD patients.Conclusion IL-18 may be a marker of cononary a the rosclerosis.The levels of serum IL-18 correlate with the severity of CAD.