Correlation between Serum IL-6 Levels and Death: Usefulness in Diagnosis of “Traumatic Shock”?

Correlation between Serum IL-6 Levels and Death: Usefulness in Diagnosis of “Traumatic Shock”?

SOHTARO MIMASAKA, MASAKI HASHIYADA, MASAYUKI NATA and MASATO FUNAYAMA

Department of Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8575

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been considered as an important mediator of inflammation. Clinically it is a well-known marker of the severity of injury following major trauma. In this study, the levels of IL-6 in body serum were applied to a traumatic death index. Of ninety victims 55 were men and 35 women, with a mean age of 53.4±19 (S.D.) years. The cases were classified as traumatic deaths (38 cases), non-traumatic deaths other than natural causes of deaths (36 cases), and deaths due to natural causes (16 cases). All samples were collected within 2 days after death. The mean values of IL-6 levels of the traumatic, non-traumatic and disease groups were 8608.97, 2205.65, and 3266.64 pg/ml, respectively. Some cases in non-traumatic and disease cases were beyond 10 000 pg/ml, however, the mean value of the traumatic group was statistically higher than that of the other two groups. Even though several cases had high levels of IL-6 in spite of instantaneous death, the results showed that IL-6 levels are helpful in the diagnosis of traumatic shock.

Keywords —— forensic medicine; autopsy case; IL-6; trauma; shock

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2001, 193, 319-324

Address for reprints: Sohtaro Mimasaka, Department of Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryomachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan.

e-mail: mimasaka@forensic.med.tohoku.ac.jp