Is Interleukin 6 an Early Marker of Injury Severity Following Major Trauma in Humans?

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Abstract
INTERLEUKIN 6 (IL-6) is obviously one of the earliest and most important mediators of short-term phase response. Based on a recent review of the literature, Biffl et al1 summarized the properties of IL-6 and characterized its response to injury. There are also clinical studies1-13 that describe the IL-6 response to trauma, burns, and elective surgery. Although IL-6 is considered to be a mediator of the physiologic short-term phase reaction to injury, excessive and prolonged postinjury elevations are associated with increased morbidity.