The clinical value of detecting the interleukin-6 levels in serum in the patients with sepsis

Objective To investigate the regularity and significance of serum interleukin-6(IL-6) levels in the patients with sepsis.Methods Forty sepsis patients with APACHEⅡ scores over 12 and 30 normal controls were involved in the study.The IL-6 levels in serum were detected with radio-immunity analysis assay and the correlations among the IL-6 levels,the prognosis and APACHEⅡ score were investigated.Results In the patients with sepsis,the average level of IL-6 in serum was(152.02±55.77) pg/ml,which was significantly higher than that of the control group [(85.79±30.96) pg/ml](P0.01).In the patients with sepsis,there was a positive correlation between the IL-6 levels and the prognosis(r=0.667,P=0.000),and the IL-6 levels were positively correlated with the APACHEⅡ score(r=0.485,P=0.002).Among 40 patients with sepsis,20 patients were dead and the IL-6 level in the 20 patients [(186.20±48.74) pg/ml] were higher than that of the survivors [(117.84±39.36) pg/ml](t=4.880,P=0.000).Conclusion The IL-6 levels are increased in the serum of the patients with sepsis and there is a positive correlation between the IL-6 levels and prognosis.