CSF interleukin 6 is a useful marker to distinguish pseudotumoral CNS inflammatory diseases from primary CNS lymphoma
- 20 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Zeitschrift für Neurologie
- Vol. 268 (8), 2890-2894
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-021-10453-5
Abstract
Background Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a pleomorphic cytokine that can be found in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in a wide spectrum of inflammatory pathologies of the central nervous system (CNS). Objective Our aim was to characterize the diagnostic significance of CSF IL-6 among various CNS inflammatory diseases with pseudotumoral lesions (CNSID) and primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL). Methods We retrospectively analyzed the CSF IL-6 concentrations in 43 consecutive patients with suspected PCNSL. A total of 28 patients were positively diagnosed with PCNSL and 15 with CNSID. We verified the results with CSF IL-10, an established biomarker for PCNSL. Results In the PCNSL group, the median CSF IL-6 concentration was 8 pg/ml, interquartile range (IQR) 5–18.5. For the patients with CNSID, the median concentration was 70 pg/ml, IQR 5–1368. A group comparison showed significantly higher CSF IL-6 levels in patients with CNSID than in those with PCNSL (p = 0.032). Moreover, IL-6 was correlated with CSF cell count in the CNSID group (r = 0.56, p = 0.028), but not in the PCNSL group (r = 0.3, p = 0.13). We found significantly higher CSF IL-10 levels in patients with PCNSL than in patients with CNS inflammatory lesions (p < 0.001). Discussion and conclusions Our study suggests that CSF IL-6 levels could represent, in addition to CSF IL-10, a useful biomarker in the differential diagnosis of CNSID and suspected PCNSL.This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
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