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Updated: Jun 21, 2026
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A Data-Driven Approach to Quantifying Immune States in Sepsis
Published on: February 7, 2025
Baseline Interleukin-6 in Sepsis: Mortality Risk Stratification and Survival Analysis in a Prospective Cohort
Raluca Terteşş1,2, Lucian Cristian Petcu2, Constantin Ionescu2
1Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases Constanta, Ferdinand Blvd. No. 100, 900709 Constanţa, Romania.
Biomedicines
|May 27, 2026
Summary
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a strong early predictor of mortality risk in sepsis patients. However, elevated IL-6 levels at ICU admission do not correlate with survival duration in sepsis.
Area of Science:
- Critical Care Medicine
- Immunology
- Biomarker Research
Background:
- Sepsis, a life-threatening organ dysfunction from infection, requires precise risk stratification.
- Identifying biomarkers for early immune response assessment in sepsis is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the prognostic value of baseline interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels for mortality in sepsis patients.
- To evaluate IL-6's role in risk stratification and survival duration prediction.
Main Methods:
- Prospective observational study of adult sepsis patients admitted to ICU.
- Utilized ROC curve analysis, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and Cox regression.
- Assessed association between IL-6 levels, in-hospital mortality, and time to death.
Main Results:
- IL-6 showed high discriminatory performance for in-hospital mortality (AUC=0.956).
- Optimal IL-6 cut-off (>135.14 pg/mL) demonstrated high sensitivity (87.65%) and specificity (92.86%).
- Baseline IL-6 levels were not significantly associated with time-to-death.
Conclusions:
- Admission IL-6 is an effective biomarker for early mortality risk stratification in sepsis.
- IL-6 levels at admission are not predictive of survival duration in sepsis patients.