Citation

Mimasaka S, Hashiyada M, Nata M, Funayama M. Tohoku J. Exp. Med. 2001; 193(4): 319-324.

Affiliation

Department of Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. mimasaka@forensic.med.tohoku.ac.jp

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Tohoku University Medical Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11453540

Abstract

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been considered as an important mediator of inflammation. Clinically it is a well-known marker of the severity of injury following major trauma. In this study, the levels of IL-6 in body serum were applied to a traumatic death index. Of ninety victims 55 were men and 35 women, with a mean age of 53.4+/- 19 (S.D.) years. The cases were classified as traumatic deaths (38 cases), non-traumatic deaths other than natural causes of deaths (36 cases), and deaths due to natural causes (16 cases). All samples were collected within 2 days after death. The mean values of IL-6 levels of the traumatic, non-traumatic and disease groups were 8608.97, 2205.65, and 3266.64 pg/ml, respectively. Some cases in non-traumatic and disease cases were beyond 10 000 pg/ml, however, the mean value of the traumatic group was statistically higher than that of the other two groups. Even though several cases had high levels of IL-6 in spite of instantaneous death, the results showed that IL-6 levels are helpful in the diagnosis of traumatic shock.

Language: en