serum interleukin-18 and its relationship with subclinical atherosclerosis in systemic lupus erythematosus

Background: interleukin-18 (il-18) is a pro-inflammatory and pro-atherogenic factor, and its blood level has shown a direct correlation with atherosclerosis. we aimed to evaluate the serum il-18 level in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) and its relationship with the intima-media thickness (imt) of the carotid artery in these patients, as an indicator of atherosclerosis.methods: in this cross-sectional study, 60 patients as the patient group and 30 healthy volunteers as the control group [matched sex, age, and body mass index (bmi)] were selected, and their disease status and general data were gathered using the systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index 2000 (sledai-2k) form. a blood sample was also obtained from all participants to determine the serum level of il-18 and other metrics, including high-sensitivity c-reactive protein (hs-crp), cholesterol, triglyceride (tg), low-density lipoprotein (ldl), high-density lipoprotein (hdl), anti-double stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (anti-dsdna), complement 3 (c3), and c4. the imt of the carotid artery was calculated in both groups. we also evaluated the clinical cardiovascular manifestations.results: the serum il-18 levels in patients were significantly higher than in the control group (p ˂ 0.005). it had no significant correlation with disease activity (p = 0.10). the patients with sle with high il-18 serum levels (> 280 pg/ml) had higher sledai-2k (p = 0.02) than the patients with a low level (< 280), where 280 was the median of the il-18 levels. the serum il-18 level had no significant correlation with the carotid artery imt.conclusion: a high level of il-18 reflects the disease activity, but it was not significantly correlated with subclinical atherosclerosis, denoted by the carotid artery imt.