interleukins in diagnosis of perinatal asphyxia:a systematic review

Background: biochemical markers including interleukins (ils) has been proposed for early diagnosis of asphyxia. objective: this study has aimed to systematically review the significance of il measurements in the diagnosis of perinatal asphyxia. materials and methods: pubmed, cochrane library, web of science, embase, and scopus databases before 2017 were searched for the following keywords: asphyxia, neonatal, interleukin, and diagnosis. a total of 13 out of 300 searched papers were finally selected for evaluation. interleukins under study were il6 and interleukin 1𝛽 (il-1𝛽). interleukins had been measured in 10 studies by serum samples, 2 studies by samples of cerebro spinal fluid (csf), and 1 study by sample of umbilical cord blood. the inclusion criteria were: studies on neonates, with adequate information from the test results and studies using markers other than ils to detect asphyxia; however, studies with only abstracts available were excluded. results: research on the issue suggests that il6 > 41 pg/dl has the sensitivity of 84.88% and the specificity of 85.43%, whereas il-1𝛽 > 4.7 pg/dl has the sensitivity of 78% and specificity of 83% in the diagnosis of neonatal asphyxia. among diagnostic ils for neonatal asphyxia, combination of il6 and il-1𝛽 had the highest sensitivity, that is, 92.9%. conclusion: il6 and il-1𝛽 of serum samples were used in the early diagnosis of perinatal asphyxia and are useful predictors for the outcomes of perinatal asphyxia and its intensity. in addition, simultaneous evaluation of il-1𝛽 and il6 can improve the sensitivity of the early diagnosis of perinatal asphyxia.