Variation in the levels of IL-6 in pediatric patients with severe bacterial infectious diseases and correlation analysis between the levels of IL-6 and procalcitonin

The objective of the present study was to investigate variations in the levels of interleukin (IL)-6, procalcitonin (PCT), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in children with severe bacterial infectious diseases and to analyze the correlation between the levels of IL-6 and PCT to determine the value of combined diagnosis with IL-6 and PCT. We analyzed 126 patients admitted to Xuzhou Children's Hospital for treatment, who were divided into severe bacterial infection (observation group, n=65) and non-bacterial infection groups (control group, n=61). The levels of IL-6, PCT, and CRP were measured and compared between the two groups. Data from both groups were statistically analyzed. The levels of IL-6, PCT, and CRT in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.01); in the observation group, the levels of IL-6 and PCT on the 5th and 10th day after treatment were significantly lower than those before treatment (P<0.01); PCT showed better value for diagnosing severe bacterial infections compared with IL-6 and CRP; there was a positive correlation between the levels of IL-6 and PCT in the observation group; and the sensitivity and specificity of combined diagnosis with IL-6 and PCT for severe bacterial infection was 93.84% and 96.72%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those for diagnosis with only IL-6 (P<0.01). In conclusion, IL-6 combined with PCT can serve as an indicator with high sensitivity for detection of severe bacterial infections in children, which is of great significance for the differential diagnosis of severe bacterial infections in the early stage.