Correlation of Inflammatory Biomarkers (Interleukin-6, Interleukin-8, and Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha) with Severity of Acute Pancreatitis

Abstract

Background: Early assessment of severity of acute pancreatitis is very essential for the selection of patients who will require intensive care to prevent local complications and organ dysfunction. Several scoring systems have been developed, but these require large number of clinical and biochemical parameters, making them overly complicated and cumbersome. There is a need to develop simple clinical investigations which would help in assessing the severity of acute pancreatitis. Hence, the present study is undertaken to evaluate the role of inflammatory biomarkers (interleukin-6 [IL-6], IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-α]) in the assessment of severity in acute pancreatitis. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India and enrolled 50 patients with acute pancreatitis. Serum levels of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α were measured within 24 h of admission. Results: The levels of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α were found to be significantly higher in patients with severe pancreatitis as compared to mild disease. With a cutoff level of >46.379 pg/ml, IL-6 had a sensitivity of 96.15%, specificity of 95.83%, and diagnostic accuracy of 96% for predicting progression to severe acute pancreatitis. Similarly, IL-8 >39.54 pg/mL had a sensitivity of 92.31%, specificity of 91.67%, and diagnostic accuracy of 92%. TNF-α >11.80 pg/mL had a sensitivity of 53.85%, specificity of 95.83%, and diagnostic accuracy of 74%. Conclusion: The current study results suggests that IL-6 and IL-8 levels measured within 24 h of admission can be used for predicting progression to severe acute pancreatitis.