VALUE OF THE MATERNAL INTERLEUKIN-6 LEVEL FOR DETERMINATION OF HISTOLOGIC CHORIOAMNIONITIS IN PRETERM DELIVERY

The present study examined whether maternal serum cytokine levels are useful for the diagnosis of histologic chorioamnionitis. The blood sam ples of 29 women who delivered preterm between 22 and 34 weeks of gest ation were collected at delivery, and placentas were histopathological ly examined for chorioamnionitis. The interleukin (IL) 6 titer was hig her in 18 mothers with histologic chorioamnionitis (median 12.0 pg/ml, range 4.9-63.5 pg/ml) than that in 11 mothers without histologic chor ioamnionitis (median 3.5 pg/ml, range 1.7-14.9 pg/ml; p < 0.0001). The C-reactive protein (CRP) titer also differed significantly between th ese two groups (chorioamnionitis group: median 5.2 mg/dl, range 0.1-12 .3 mg/dl; no chorioamnionitis group: median 0.2 mg/dl, range 0.1-0.5 m g/dl; p = 0.0001). The IL-6 titer showed better clinical diagnostic in dices and a higher odds ratio (9.78, 95% confidence interval 1.50-63.8 2) than did CRP (3.26, 95% confidence interval 1.22-8.67). The levels of IL-8, monocyte chemotactic and activating factor, and soluble IL-6 receptor did not differ between the two groups. These data suggest tha t the level of maternal serum IL-6 is more useful than other markers, including CRP, for the identification of women at risk of impending pr eterm labor with histologic chorioamnionitis.