The Correlation between Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Cytokines in Chronic Subdural Hematoma Patients Assessed with Factor Analysis

Chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) is a relatively common disorder in neurosurgery on elderly patients, though the mechanism that causes the disease remains unclear. Studies have suggested that local anticoagulation and inflammatory changes may be important in its pathogenesis. Most studies have used a basic bivariate statistical analysis to assess complex immunological responses in patients with this disorder, hence a more sophisticated multivariate statistical approach might be warranted. Our objective was to assess the association and correlation between the pro- and anti-inflammatory responses in a cohort of patients with chronic subdural hematoma (n = 57) using an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Thirteen assigned pro-inflammatory (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-2R, IL-6, IL-7, IL-12, IL-15, IL-17, CCL2, CXCL8, CXCL9 and CXCL10) and five assigned anti-inflammatory (IL-1RA, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10 and IL-13) cytokines from blood and hematoma fluid samples were examined. Exploratory factor analysis indicated two major underlying immunological processes expressed by the cytokines in both blood and hematoma fluid, but with a different pattern and particularly regarding the cytokines IL-13, IL-6, IL-4 and TNF-α. Scores from confirmatory factor analysis models exhibited a higher correlation between pro- and anti-inflammatory activities in blood (r = 0.98) than in hematoma fluid samples (r = 0.92). However, correlations of inflammatory processes between blood and hematoma fluid samples were lower and non-significant. A structural equation model showed a significant association between increased anti-inflammatory activity in hematoma fluid samples and a lower risk of recurrence, but this relationship was not statistically significant in venous blood samples. Moreover, these findings indicate that anti-inflammatory activities in the hematoma may play a role in the risk of a recurrence of CSDH.