1Eglal Hussein S, 2Elham Anwar M, 3Sawsan K El-Sayed and 4Amr M Zaki.
Departments of 1Pediatrics, 2Clinical Pathology and 3Dermatology & Venereology, Faculty of medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University and 4Department of Dermatology & Venereology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University.
The cytokine cascade involved in IgE production has implications in allergic inflammation. For this purpose, changes in IL-6 and IgE levels and eosinophilic count were evaluated in sixty children with atopy. They included thirty patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), and thirty with bronchial asthma (BA). Twenty age- matched apparently healthy children were chosen as control group. The mean serum IL-6 Level was significantly higher in AD (18.85 ± 17.79 Pg/ml) and BA (45 ± 38.79 Pg/ml) than the control group (10.28 ± 7.02 Pg/ml), (p<0.01 and <0.001 respectively). Higher values for IgE and eosinophil count were also demonstrated among AD (681.9 ± 555.79 Iu/ml) & (0.69 ± 0.5 count x 102/L) and BA (2122.9 ± 1636.86 Iu/ml)) & (0.52 ± 0.38 count x 102/L) as compared to controls (75 ± 23.8 Iu/ml) & (0.15 ± 0.11 count x 102/L), (P<0.001 for both). In addition, serum IL-6 and IgE values were significantly higher in BA than AD group (P<0.01 and <0.001 respectively). Correlation studies revealed a highly significant positive correlation between serum IL-6 and IgE in both AD (r = 0.79) and BA (r = 0.76) groups, (P<0.001 for both). Furthermore, among AD group, IL-6 and IgE levels differed grossly with the degree of severity of the disease. By using Z-score, IgE level was the most sensitive estimated parameter to discriminate AD and BA from control group. IL-6 was the second one in BA, while eosinophilic count was the second discriminative parameter in AD. We concluded that IL-6 may be used a sensitive marker of disease activity, beside its possible role in the pathophysiology of bronchial asthma and atopic dermatitis.