ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses interleukin-6 (IL-6) measurements as they correlate with different disease states. One of the first and most dramatic descriptions of the elevation of serum IL-6 levels in patients and its relationship with the increases in body temperature and the subsequent rise and fall of C-reactive protein and a1-antitrypsin levels was presented by Nijsten et al. in 1987. During the last 5 years, it has become abundantly clear that the levels of IL-6 in body fluids are increased in a wide variety of disease states. Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the development of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is correlated with increases in circulating IL-6 levels. Breen et al. reported elevations in circulating IL-6 levels in HIV-infected patients. The chapter also presents data which show that the clinical situation is likely to be one in which amniotic fluid IL-6 measurements will prove to be of diagnostic and prognostic value directly to the individual patient.
