The Serum Level of IL-1B Correlates with the Activity of Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis

摘要

Background. Until now, there have been no objective criteria to determine the activity of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA). This study aims to analyze the correlation between serum level of IL-1B and the activity of CPA and to determine whether serum IL-1B could be used to assess the activity of CPA. Methods. A total of 469 newly diagnosed CPA patients were enrolled. Correlation analysis in the whole subjects showed that only IL-1B level was associated with the activity of CPA. Then, 381 cases with factors significantly affecting IL-1B expression was excluded through multiple linear regression; the remaining 88 patients were divided into high IL-1B group and low IL-1B group, according to the median value of serum IL-1B, for subgroup analysis. A retrospective comparative analysis was subsequently performed between the two groups, including the clinical manifestation, microbiology and laboratory tests results, and imaging findings. We further investigated the relationship between IL-1B levels and CT characteristic which acted as the indicator of CPA activity, as well as changes in IL-1B level before and after surgery. Results. For all patients, correlation analysis revealed that IL-1B level correlated with both cavitary diameter () and aspergilloma size () but not with the thickness of the cavity (). In subgroup comparative analysis, CT characteristics suggested that high activity of CPA, such as cavitary (27/44 vs 13/44, ) and aspergilloma lesions (25/44 vs. 11/44, ), were more frequently found in high IL-1B group. The cavity diameter (), aspergilloma size (), and cavity wall thickness () were significantly different between the two groups. When Spearman correlation analysis was performed once again in subgroup, an even stronger relationship of serum IL-1B with the cavity diameter (,) and aspergilloma size (,) was observed. Interestingly, a significant reduction of IL-1B level was observed after successful resection of CPA lesions. Conclusion. Higher level of serum IL-1B is associated with more severe cavitary and aspergilloma lesions, which are indicative of more active CPA. In addition, IL-1B level reduced accordingly after lesion resection. Measuring IL-1B level therefore could be served as a convenient method to monitor the activity of CPA and be a potential predictive/prognostic marker for treatment response.