Assessment of synovial fluid and serum cytokine levels in children with septic arthritis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2021

Abstract

Acute septic arthritis (ASA) is a common orthopedic infection of children which may produce devastating sequelae and chronic morbidity. Improved understanding of the intra-articular inflammatory response in ASA may identify cytokine targets with diagnostic or therapeutic potential, though no detailed investigations to this end have been performed. Given this, we used a multiplex cytokine assay for assessment of levels of 40 different cytokines in the synovial fluid and blood of children with ASA. Twelve children (8 controls undergoing orthopedic surgery for non-infectious conditions and 4 with ASA) were prospectively enrolled. Blood and synovial fluid were collected intraoperatively from each subject, and the levels of 40 cytokines were determined using a multiplex assay. Cytokines were organized by function and structure into 12 groups for analysis. The Benjamini-Hochberg method was used to control for type 1 errors, with an a priori false discovery rate of 10%. Subjects with ASA were younger than controls (mean age 8.0 vs 13.1 years, p=0.0400). Significant elevations were seen in interleukins (IL) with chemokine properties, IL-6 and those in the common-γ chain group in the blood and synovial fluid of children with ASA compared with controls, while significant elevations in 5 additional cytokine groups were seen in synovial fluid from children with ASA compared with controls, most notably IL-6 (median 8294.3 vs 10.7 pg/mL, p=0.0066). Our pilot study is the first to describe in detail the cytokine response in children with ASA, and highlights the need for additional study.

Publisher

BC Decker

Publication Title

Journal of investigative medicine : the official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research

ISSN

1708-8267

Volume

69

Issue

5

First Page

1059

Last Page

1062

DOI

10.1136/jim-2020-001526

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