Science. IL-6-174G/C promoter polymorphism in acute appendicitis.

Background: Appendicitis is an inflammatory disorder that could be classified in several stages of severity and is diagnosed by a combination of clinical and laboratory findings. IL-6 is an inflammatory cytokine and, in appendicitis, could be used as an inflammatory marker or it could affect other inflammatory markers used as a diagnostic factor. It has been reported IL-6 -174G/C allele polymorphisms could affect cytokine production. Methods: ARMS-PCR method was used to characterize the -174G/C polymorphism in healthy controls and appendectomized patients with an appendicitis diagnosis. CRP, ESR, WBC count, and percent of neutrophils laboratory tests were completed. Patients were classified into acute appendicitis, acute suppurative appendicitis, and non-appendicitis subgroups by histology evaluation. Results: The frequency of IL-6 -174G/C polymorphism in the normal control group, patient group, and subgroups were not different (P>0.05). Laboratory markers in the patient group and 3 subgroups were significantly higher than the control group (P</=0.05). The WBC count and percent of neutrophils of non-appendicitis subjects were different from acute and acute suppurative appendicitis subgroups (P</=0.05). Conclusions: This study shows that IL-6 -174G/C variants are not risk factors or predictive markers of appendicitis or different stages of appendicitis severity. On the other hand, we found the WBC count and percent of neutrophils could be useful markers for discrimination of non-appendicitis inflamed patients from histologically appendicitis patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]