Serum cytokines and clinical features in patients with fever and thrombocytopenia syndrome

PURPOSE: To explore the clinical, microbiological and immunological features of patients with fever and thrombocytopenia. METHODS: Patients with unexplained fever and thrombocytopenia were enrolled. Viruses were detected using real-time PCR, and bacteria were measured by culturing methods. Serum cytokines, platelet antibody IgG (PA-IgG) and Helicobacter pylori (HP) were detected using ELISA. RESULTS: Pathogens were detected in 74.68% of patients, which included single fungal/viral/bacterial infection and multiple infection. The pathogens could not be unidentified in 25.32% of cases. Cytokines including Interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, interferon-γ(IFN-γ), platelet activating factor (PAF) and PA-IgG were significantly higher in patients as compared to healthy controls (P < .01 or P < .05). Principal component analyses extracted four groups of parameters that have a strong positive predicting value, revealing that disease status evaluation would be more accurate if we combined the platelet parameters and inflammatory biomarkers. While event-free survival (EFS) that indicates the time of platelet elevated after therapy was the highest in patients with single bacterial or fungal infection, EFS was affected by the levels of cytokines and PA-IgG. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in immune function may be the main factors affecting the prognosis of patients with fever and thrombocytopenia, while treatment based on precise etiological diagnosis is important for therapeutic efficacy.