Elevated Serum Levels of Interleukin-l5, Interleukin-16 and Human Chorionic Gonadotropin in Pre-eclampsia

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between interleukin 15 (IL-15), interleukin 16 (IL-16) and human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) blood levels in normal pregnancy and pre-eclampsia and their association with disease severity and to calculate the accuracy of these markers in diagnosing the disease and its severity. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants and Methods: The study was conducted at A1 Fayoum University between December 2006 and September 2007. 32 nulliparous women with preeclampsia (pre-eclamptic group) scheduled for Cesarean Section (C.S) were recruited and matched for age and gestational age with 35 nulliparous normotensive pregnant women (control group). Among preec- lamptic women, 18 were diagnosed with severe preeclampsia and 14 mild preeclampsia. Blood sampling was performed for assaying serum levels of IL-15, IL-16 andft-hCG . Results: Maternal serum concentrations of IL-15, IL-16 and β-hCG were significantly greater in preeclamptic women in comparison to normotensive pregnant women (p 0.001). Moreover, they were significantly higher in sever pre-eclamptic cases than mild cases (p 0.001). Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between β-hCG, IL-15 and IL-16 in the maternal serum among all groups. β-hCG has a sensitivity, specificity, +ve predictive value, -ve predictive value and overall accuracy of 56.25%, 91.43%, 85.71%, 69.57% and 74.63% respectively. These values for IL-15 were 94.44%, 89.8%, 77.27%, 97.78% and 91.04% respectively. For IL-16, the values were 88.89%, 95.92%, 88.89%, 95.92% and 94.03% respectively. Conclusion: IL-15, IL-16 β-hC G blood levels were significantly increased in preeclamptic women in comparison to normotensive women and were correlated with disease severity. Howevere, IL-15 and 16 have an overall accuracy better than β-hC G in diagnosing severe pre-eclampsia.