Higher admission IL-6 levels are associated with higher platelet levels at discharge in sepsis patients

Background Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction syndrome, with an overall mortality rate of 32.8%. Platelets have been shown to have a central role in the pathogenesis of a diverse array of immune-mediated and infectious diseases, both thrombocytopenia and platelet hyperreactivity independently correlate with elevated sepsis-related morbidity and mortality. Methods From February 2021 to June 2022, patients diagnosed with sepsis (according to the Sepsis 3.0 criteria) from the emergency department were screened and enrolled in a prospective observational cytokine analysis cohort. “Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine Grp I Panel 17-plex” was used for cytokines analysis. Patients were stratified into high- and low-platelet groups using a discharge platelet threshold of 150 × 10⁹/L. Data was analyzed with R 4.4.0 and GraphPad Prism 9, calculating medians and frequencies for variables. Results Fifty seven patients were enrolled and were classified into high- and low-platelet groups (31 vs. 26). IL-6 had a significant difference between the two groups after adjusting for admission platelet level and length of stay in hospital (2072 vs 107.1, q<0.05). ROC curve also showed IL-6 had high degrees of sensitivity and specificity for predicting higher platelet levels. Conclusion Higher IL-6 levels at admission for sepsis were associated with higher platelet levels at discharge.