Introduction:

pediatric sepsis is considered a major cause of morbidity and mortality; the measurement of serum IL-6 has demonstrated a useful tool for early diagnosis and improved prognosis for this condition.

Objective:

we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic validity of IL-6 serum levels in pediatric patients with severe sepsis in order to determine non-COVID viral or bacterial etiologies.

Material and methods:

a prospective transversal cohort of 111 patients with suspected sepsis whose etiological agent was confirmed via molecular diagnosis was done.

Results:

pathogenic etiology was identified in 40 patients (36%), of which 26 were of viral origin and 14 bacterial. IL-6 levels were higher in patients with bacterial septic etiology versus viral (38.4 versus 7.3 pg/mL, p = 0.01). A positive correlation was found between IL-6 levels and C-reactive protein (r = 0.76; p = 0.006).

Conclusion:

the systematic measurement of plasmatic IL-6 facilitates a more precise diagnosis with the correlation of other infectious biomarkers.

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