The balance between the serum levels of IL-6 and IL-10 cytokines discriminates mild and severe acute pneumonia

BACKGROUND: To identify markers for earlier diagnosis of severe pneumonia, we assess the correlation between serum cytokine profile of children with different pneumonia severity. METHODS: In 25 hospitalized children, 7 with mild pneumonia and 18 with severe pneumonia, the serum concentration of 11 cytokines in three sampling times were dosed. Statistical analysis included parametric and non-parametric tests, Pearson correlation and ROC curve for cut-off definition of cytokines. RESULTS: At admission, IL-6 serum levels were high in mild or severe pneumonia, and was associated to vomiting (P = 0.019) in both groups; and also to dyspnea (P = 0.012) and white blood cell count (P = 0.045) in patients with severe pneumonia. IL-10 levels were also high in patients with pneumonia and were associated to lymphocytosis (P = 0.025). The ROC curve of the IL-6:IL-10 serum levels ratio discriminated severe pneumonia cases at admission, and persistence of infection in the third day of antibiotic therapy, with positive predictive values of 93% and 89%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The balance between IL-6 and IL-10 serum levels showed to be a more discriminative marker for severity definition and evaluation of recovery in patients with pneumonia. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12890-016-0324-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.