Levels And Clinical Significance Of STRAIL And OPG In Serum And Cerebrospinal Fluid In Patients With Central Nervous System Infections

Objective:To observe the soluble tumor necrosis factor related apoptosis inducing ligand(sTRAIL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) levels in serum and in cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) in patients with infection of central nervous system (CNS) and analyze their clinical significance.Methods:The concentrations of sTRAIL and OPG in serum and CSF were determined by ELISA in acute-phase of 30 tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and 20 viral encephalitis (VM) and 20 normal subjects. Then a comparison was carried out between each other. At the same time severe cases compared with the mild.Results:In acute phase the levels of serum sTRAIL and OPG were higher in patients with infection of CNS than control group (P<0.05).The levels of serum sTRAIL and OPG were more significant in severe group of TBM than in mild ones (P< 0.05). With respect to the levels of sTRAIL and OPG in CSF, compared with control group TBM group was higher (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference between VM group and control ones (P>0.05), TBM group was higher than VM group (P<0.05). Levels of the serum sTRAIL were even higher in TBM group than VM group (P<0.05), but levels of serum OPG were no significant difference between them (P>0.05).Conclusion:The changes of sTRAIL and OPG in serum and CSF indicated that they may be involved in the pathological process of central nervous system infection. They were related to severity of TBM and could be new disease markers in this disease. It will enhance the specificity of diagnosing central nervous system infection if we detect the levels of sTRAIL and OPG in serum and in CSF at the same time. Moreover the levels of sTRAIL and OPG may be valuable in distinguishing with TBM and VM.