Similar inflammatory response in alcoholic and non-alcoholic sepsis patients.

UNLABELLED It is well known that alcoholics are prone to severe infections and that the immune system is impaired by chronic ethanol abuse. The aim of this study is to compare serum inflammatory mediators in response to sepsis in chronic alcoholic with sepsis, non-alcoholics with sepsis and non-infected alcoholics. METHOD We included 25 alcoholics with sepsis, 34 non-alcoholics with sepsis, 34 non-infected alcoholics admitted for programmed withdrawal, and 27 healthy control subjects. After initial evaluation, blood samples were taken for determination of serum cytokine levels. RESULTS We found similar responses for the inflammatory mediators analyzed among our sepsis patients, regardless of alcohol abuse. The only difference was that alcoholics with sepsis showed lower CRP and G-CSF than non-alcoholic sepsis patients. There were no differences regarding leukocyte count. Alcoholics admitted for programmed withdrawal showed higher IL-6, IFN-γ, IL-10, Il-4 and ICAM-1 serum levels than healthy controls. Serum IL-5 levels were decreased in both alcoholic groups. CONCLUSION The inflammatory response of alcoholics with sepsis is similar to that of non-alcoholic sepsis patients. However, the low G-CSF levels in alcoholic sepsis patients might suggest a predisposition to infections in alcohol abusers.