Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Interleukin-6 levels predict survival in dogs in intensive care
By Schüttler, Julia & Neumann, Stephan·Published in Veterinary clinical pathology·2015·Small Animal Clinic, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Interleukin-6 as a prognostic marker in dogs in an intensive care unit.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs in an intensive care unit was studied to see if a protein called interleukin-6 (IL-6) could help predict their chances of survival. The dogs were divided into two groups: those that survived and those that did not. The results showed that dogs that did not survive had much higher levels of IL-6 in their blood compared to those that did survive. This suggests that measuring IL-6 could be a helpful tool for veterinarians to assess the prognosis of critically ill dogs.
People also search for: dog ICU survival rates · high IL-6 levels in dogs · dog critical care prognosis
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is involved in the acute phase reaction during inflammatory disease, including septicemia and the inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). In people, IL-6 has been studied as a prognostic marker in intensive care medicine, where nonsurvivors had significantly higher IL-6 concentrations than survivors. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to investigate the prognostic value of IL-6 in dogs admitted to the intensive care unit based on sensitivity and specificity. METHODS: Dogs suffering from different severe diseases treated in the intensive care unit were divided into 2 groups of survivors and nonsurvivors. Serum IL-6 concentrations were measured with a canine-specific ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) kit. RESULTS: Sixty-nine dogs were included in the study, including 20 survivors, 9 nonsurvivors, and 40 control dogs. In the control group, IL-6 serum concentrations were below the detection level (0 pg/mL). In the group of nonsurviving dogs, IL-6 ranged from 45-4656 pg/mL (median 1398 pg/mL). The surviving dogs had a range of 0-405 pg/mL (median 84.5 pg/mL). The mean IL-6 concentration was significantly higher (P < .001) in nonsurvivors than in survivors. Using a cutoff of 400 pg/mL, a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 95% were determined. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that IL-6 is a useful prognostic marker for canine critical care patients with acute internal disease.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25866911/