Diagnostic performance of serum interleukin-6 and interleukin-10 levels and clinical predictors in children with rotavirus and norovirus gastroenteritis

Abstract

Objectives: Rotavirus and norovirus are the two most common causes of acute viral gastroenteritis in children. This study aimed to explore the association of serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) levels and the clinical features in children with rotavirus and norovirus gastroenteritis.

Methods: This prospective study enrolled 168 acute gastroenteritis patients admitted to a tertiary care center. Peripheral blood samples were collected for IL-6 and IL-10 assays within the first 72 h of illness. The diagnostic performance of clinical tests was estimated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Binary logistic regression modeling was performed to examine the predictive variables.

Results: Serum IL-6 and IL-10 were measured in children with rotavirus infection (n=30), norovirus infection (n=25), Salmonella infection (n=26), and in 11 healthy controls. There were significant higher degrees of severity of illness and levels of IL-10 in the rotavirus group as compared to the norovirus group. The binary logistic regression analysis revealed that both the ANC and maximum body temperature (BT) were significant clinical predictors for discriminating rotavirus and norovirus gastroenteritis. The ROC curve to evaluate the accuracy of logistic regression model had an AUC of 0.847 (95% CI: 0.741-0.952, p<0.001).

Conclusions: IL-10 shows a significant discriminating ability between rotavirus and norovirus infection. A model incorporating maximum BT and ANC can help pediatricians to distinguish between rotavirus and norovirus in children with a suspected viral gastroenteritis.