Evaluation of serum interleukin-1 beta as an inflammatory marker in COPD patients

Background: COPD is a chronic disease of the lungs characterized by increased obstruction to airflow that does not change markedly over periods of several months. Low-grade systemic inflammation is considered a hallmark of COPD that potentially links COPD to increased rate of systemic manifestations of the disease. Evaluation of systemic inflammation in COPD particularly when the disease is severe and during exacerbation can be measured either as increased circulating cytokines, chemokines and acute phase proteins, or as abnormalities in the circulating cells and markers. One of these inflammatory mediators is IL-1B which demonstrated recent reports in significantly high levels of IL-1β in serum of the COPD patients as compared to the healthy controls. Aim of the study: To assess the level of serum IL-1B in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients during acute exacerbation and in stable conditions and also, to determine if the changes in its level correlated with changes in the ventilatory functions. Methods: 80 cases were included in this study: 60 COPD patients and 20 healthy subjects as a control. There were 48 males and 12 females in COPD groups and 17 males and 3 females in the control group. Their age ranged from 41 to 79 years with a mean age of 59 years. The subjects were classified into 3 groups. Group I includes (30) patients with acute exacerbation of COPD. Group II includes (30) patients with stable controlled COPD. Group III includes (20) healthy persons as a control. Results: There was a highly statistically significant difference in serum IL-1B (pg/ml) between studied groups, which indicates that IL-1B plays a role in systemic inflammatory process. There was a highly statistically significant difference in serum IL-1B concentration (pg/ml) and severity of COPD cases. Conclusions: IL-1β correlated with clinical aspects of disease severity, suggesting that IL-1β may play a critical role in COPD