Objective: To define the influence of interleukin-1 activity on coagulation and fibrinolytic system activation and the release of proinflammatory mediators in the early human response to severe infection.
Study design: All patients with severe sepsis syndrome who were enrolled from two surgical centers that were participating in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled, multicenter, multinational trial of recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist in the treatment of sepsis syndrome.
Population: Twenty-six patients with sepsis syndrome received an intravenous loading dose of recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (100 mg) or placebo followed by a continuous 72-hour infusion of recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (1.0 [n = 9] or 2.0 [n = 8] mg/kg per hour) or placebo (n = 9).
Outcome measure: Responses up to 72 hours after initiation of treatment.
Results: Plasma levels of the anaphylatoxin C3a and thrombin-antithrombin III complexes were reduced in the high-dose recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist treatment group after 72 hours (P < .05). Similarly, parameters of fibrinolysis, tissue-type plasminogen activator, and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 but not plasmin-alpha 2-antiplasmin complexes, were also significantly reduced (P < .05) after 72 hours of treatment with a high dose of recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. Neutrophil elastase-alpha 1-antitrypsin complexes and phospholipase A2 levels were also significantly reduced in the high-dose recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist treatment group after 72 hours.
Conclusions: The results confirm that activation of the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems and release of soluble inflammatory mediators are consistently observed in patients with severe sepsis syndrome. Interleukin-1 activity contributes to activation of these processes as documented by the reduction in surrogate activation markers during recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist treatment.