Early proinflammatory cytokines and C­reactive protein trends as predictors of outcome in invasive Aspergillosis.

BACKGROUND: Monitoring treatment response in invasive aspergillosis is challenging, because an immunocompromised host may not exhibit reliable symptoms and clinical signs. Cytokines play a pivotal role in mediating host immune response to infection; therefore, the profiling of biomarkers may be an appropriate surrogate for disease status. METHODS: We studied, in a cohort of 119 patients with invasive aspergillosis who were recruited in a multicenter clinical trial, serum interleukin (IL)-6, IL­8, IL­10, interferon­Î³, and C­reactive protein (CRP) trends over the first 4 weeks of therapy and correlated these trends to clinical outcome parameters. RESULTS: Circulating IL­6 and CRP levels were high at initiation of therapy and generally showed a downward trend with antifungal treatment. However, subjects with adverse outcomes exhibited a distinct lack of decline in IL­6 and CRP levels at week 1, compared with responders (P = .02, for both IL­6 and CRP). Nonresponders also had significantly elevated IL­8 levels (P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: High initial IL­8 and persistently elevated IL­6, IL­8, and CRP levels after initiation of treatment may be early predictors of adverse outcome in invasive aspergillosis. Cytokine and CRP profiles could be used for early identification of patients with a poor response to antifungal treatment who may benefit from more­aggressive antimicrobial regimens.