The Journal of laboratory and clinical medicine
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Comparative Study
Serum tumor necrosis factor levels in patients with infectious disease and septic shock.
The role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) in the pathogenesis of septic shock has been assessed by daily measurements of serum TNF-alpha levels in 60 patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit. All patients in the study had infectious disease and were at risk for the development of sepsis and septic shock. Sepsis was diagnosed in 34 patients, 24 of whom died (six within the first 24 hours). ⋯ These patients had TNF-alpha levels of 917 iqr 755 pg/ml, whereas the patients who died more than 24 hours after admission had TNF-alpha levels of 58 iqr 59 pg/ml. Survivors had lower TNF-alpha levels (26 iqr 347 pg/ml). APACHE II scores correlated with TNF-alpha levels in the total sepsis group (Spearman rank correlation coefficient 0.477; p less than 0.005).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)