GASTROENTEROLOGY / CLINICAL RESEARCH
Pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines as candidate markers in the diagnosis and assessment of Crohn’s disease activity
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1
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Jagiellonian University Medical College Kraków, Poland
2
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Jagiellonian University Medical College Kraków, Poland
3
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Krakow, Poland
Submission date: 2022-06-30
Final revision date: 2022-08-05
Acceptance date: 2022-08-06
Online publication date: 2022-08-11
Corresponding author
Krystyna Słowińska-Solnica
Department of Clinical Biochemistry
Jagiellonian University Medical College
8 Skawinska St.
31-066 Krakow, Poland
Phone: +4812 4332865
Arch Med Sci 2025;21(3):808-816
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
We evaluated the diagnostic characteristics of interleukin (IL)-12, interferon (IFN)-γ, IL-10 and IL-19, in the diagnosis and assessment of Crohn’s disease (CD) activity.
Material and methods:
We studied 49 CD patients assigned to the active (33 patients) and inactive (16 patients) disease subgroups and 31 healthy controls. Serum cytokines were measured using ELISA. Cytokine levels and their multiplication results were compared between the groups and their diagnostic characteristics in were assessed.
Results:
The levels of the studied cytokines except IL-10 and their multiplication results were significantly higher in CD patients than in controls (P <0.0001-0.007) and in patients with active than inactive disease (P <0.0001-0.023). In the diagnosis of CD, the [CRP]x[IL-19] and [IL-6]x[IFN-γ] results had a specificity of 0.96, positive predictive value (PPV) 0.97 and positive likelihood ratio (LR+) 15,0 and 15.5, respectively, while serum IL-19 and the [IL-6]x[IL-12] and IFN-γ]x[IL-12] results had a sensitivity of 0.9-0.96, negative PV (NPV) 0.75-0.86 and negative LR (LR-) 0.09-0.18. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for these markers was 0.776-0.807. In the diagnosis of active CD, the [CRP]x[IL-10] and [CRP]x[IL-19] results had a specificity of 0.98, PPV 0.96, LR+ 33.4 and 30.5, and AUC 0.896 and 0.895, respectively. Serum IFN-γ and the [CRP]x[IFN-γ], [CRP]x[IL-12] and [IFN-γ]x[IL-19] results had diagnostic sensitivity of 0.77-0.94, NPV 0.86-0.93, LR- 0.11-0.24 and AUC 0.781-0.904.
Conclusions:
Serum IFN-γ, IL-19 and some of the results of the studied cytokine levels multiplication showed promising diagnostic performance in the diagnosis of CD and its active form, which requires further validation.
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