Study of SNPs in the promoter region of IL-6 gene and other inflammatory markers as predictors of acute appendicitis in Iraqi patients

Abstract

This study was done to find out if the SNPs (-174G/C) in the regulatory (promoter) region of IL-6 gene can be considered as helpful marker and contribute in the prediction of acute appendicitis combined with other inflammatory marker like WBC count and serum CRP levels in 86 Iraqi patients admitted to emergency department of Alsader Teaching Hospital in Al-Najaf province with clinical and physical diagnosis of acute appendicitis, and 40 healthy individuals without any inflammatory disorders or clinical manifestation of any disease as control group. The distribution of patients according to gender and age showed higher incidence rates in male and in the second age group (16-22years) respectively, but without significant differences (p˃0.05). This study also showed that the patients had significantly (p<0.05) higher mean WBC counts and CRP when compared to controls. Finally, allelic distributions of SNPs (-174G/C) in the promoter region of IL-6 gene showed no significant difference (p˃0.05) between acute appendicitis patients and controls. That means polymorphism plays no role in acute appendicitis prediction so this SNPs cannot use to confirm the clinical and physical diagnosis of acute appendicitis, while other inflammatory markers (WBC count and serum CRP levels) were useful in the prediction of acute appendicitis in Iraqi population.