Systemic T-helper and T-regulatory cell type cytokine responses in rhinovirus vs. respiratory syncytial virus induced early wheezing: an observational study

Table 4 Difference in cytokine levels in corticosteroid naive children 2-3 weeks after hospitalization for wheezing when rhinovirus associated acute wheezing is compared to respiratory syncytial virus associated acute wheezing wheezing and to asymptomatic age and atopy matched control group.

Cytokine	RV-group compared to RSV-group						RV-group compared to control group
	Univariate			Multivariate
	n	fold difference (95% CI) ¹	P	fold difference (95% CI)	P	adjustments	n	fold difference (95% CI)	P
Th₁-type
IFN-gamma	19	49 (37, 170)	0.0003	120 (6.5, 45000)	0.0090	atopy, eos	20	15 (1.4, 210)	0.010
IL-2	19	8.7 (2.2, 36)	0.0012	1.2 (0.16, 6.3)	0.84	atopy, age, eos	20	9.4 (1.7, 56)	0.0048
IL-12	19	17 (2.4, 110)	0.0014	0.72 (0.047, 14)	0.80	eos	20	1.4 (0.07, 39)	0.80
Th₂-type
IL-4	19	0.81 (0.13, 5.2)	0.80	0.61 (0.11, 4.0)	0.56	age, atopy	20	1.0 (0.21, 5.4)	0.98
IL-5	19	1.6 (0.37, 6.8)	0.51	1.6 (0.37, 6.8)	0.51	-	20	2.5 (0.82, 8.2)	0.086
IL-13	19	33 (5.5, 190)	<0.0001	33 (5.5, 190)	<0.0001	-	20	0.40 (0.11, 1.6)	0.16
T_reg-type
IL-10	19	7.7 (2.7, 22)	<0.0001	6.5 (2.7, 16)	<0.0001	otitis	20	2.6 (1.3, 4.9)	0.11

RV, rhinovirus; RSV, respiratory syncytial virus; CI, confidence interval; Th, T-helper cell; IFN, interferon; eos, blood eosinophil count; IL, interleukin; T_reg, T-regulatory cell.
The data were analysed using regression analysis. In multivariate analysis, adjustments to age, presence of atopy, days of preceding cough, blood eosinophil count and presence of acute otitis media (i.e. the baseline differences) were used in a backward stepwise model. Only significant adjustments (P < 0.05) were kept in the model.
¹i.e. how many folds higher cytokine level is in the RV-group than in the RSV-group or in the control group.

ISSN: 1465-993X