• Thomas Benkoe, Carlos Reck, Andreas Gleiss, Stephan Kettner, Andreas Repa, Ernst Horcher, and Winfried Rebhandl.
• Department of Pediatric Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. thomas.benkoe@meduniwien.ac.at
• J. Pediatr. Surg. 2012 Aug 1; 47 (8): 1548-54.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to test the predictive value of interleukin (IL) 8 in the assessment of intestinal involvement in necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).MethodsForty infants with surgically treated NEC were classified into 3 groups based on intestinal involvement during laparotomy: focal (n = 11), multifocal (n = 16), and panintestinal (n = 13). Preoperatively obtained serum levels of IL-8, C-reactive protein, white blood cell count, and platelet count were correlated with intestinal involvement using logistic regression models.ResultsInterleukin 8 correlated significantly with intestinal involvement in infants with surgically treated NEC (odds ratio, 1.74; confidence interval, 1.27-2.39; P < .001). An exploratory IL-8 cutoff value of 449 pg/mL provided a specificity of 81.8% and sensitivity of 82.8% to discriminate focal from multifocal and panintestinal disease. An IL-8 cutoff value of 1388 pg/mL provided a specificity of 77.8% and a sensitivity of 76.9% to discriminate panintestinal disease from focal and multifocal disease.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a significant correlation of IL-8 with intestinal involvement in advanced NEC in a large patient population. Our results indicate that IL-8 may be a promising biomarker for assessing intestinal involvement in infants with advanced NEC.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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