Vertebral
osteomyelitis (VO) is a primary
infection of the endplates of the vertebral bodies with
secondary infection of the adjacent intervertebral discs. Diagnosis is often delayed due to unspecific symptoms and a lack of specific
infection markers. In this prospective study, we determined the suitability of 27
cytokines for the discrimination of VO and degenerative diseases of the spine and compared its diagnostic potential in relation to the
C-reactive protein (CRP), which is widely used as a non-specific
inflammation marker in clinical diagnostics. The patients included in this study underwent surgical stabilization of the lumbar and/or thoracic spine with removal of 1 or more affected intervertebral discs, as
therapy for VO (n = 16) or for erosive
osteochondrosis (EO, control group, n = 20). We evaluated the
cytokine and CRP concentrations before (pre-OP = -20-0d where 0 means the day of surgery) and after surgery (post-OP) on days 3-5, 6-11, 40-56, and 63-142. Compared to the control patients pre-OP, a significantly higher elevation of the 4
cytokines IL-6,
IL-8,
IL-12 (p70), and
VEGF as well as CRP were found in the VO patients, showing an area under the curve > 0.80 pre-OP. No significant differences were observed between VO patients with high and low virulent bacteria with respect to all 5 elevated
biomarkers. This is the first prospective study in which a broad spectrum of 27
cytokines was analysed via multiplex assay using sera from patients with and without VO. Our results show that, in addition to CRP, 4 different
cytokines were significantly altered in VO but not control patients. The results implicate that these candidate
cytokines may be used in a multiplex assay for discrimination between VO and degenerative diseases of the spine.