THE RELATION BETWEEN CYTOKINES RELEASE AND THE OCCURRENCE OF CARDIOTOXICITY INDUCED BY SCORPION STING

Abstract

Scorpion sting is one of the common toxicity accidents encountered in temperate countries, and one of the causes of death, specially in children and infants. Egypt is one of the countries suffering this problem.

Scorpion venom is a mixture of peptides and other substances which exert their actions on the autonomic nervous system leading to increase in circulating catecholamines and acetyl choline as well as having a direct effect on target cells and organs. Scorpion venom also initiates a systemic inflammatory response leading to activation and release of cytokines, which play an important role in the pathophysiology of intoxication.

The scorpion venom has major effects on the cardiovascular system, and cardiotoxicity is one of the leading causes of death in cases of scorpion envenomation. The main pathology is usually cardiac ischaemia and toxic myocarditis. IL- 6 is a cytokine known to be elevated in many cardiac diseases and was proved to be elevated in cases of scorpion envenomation.

This study was designed to pick symptomatic patients suffering from scorpion envenomation, assessing their cardiac status for the occurrence of cardiotoxicity, measuring the level of IL-6 in their sera and figuring out if there is a relation between the occurrence of scorpion sting induced cardiotoxicity and the elevated levels of IL-6.