Differences in aqueous concentrations of cytokines in paediatric and adult patients with Coats' disease

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the differential aqueous concentrations of vascular endothelia growth factor (VEGF) and inflammatory cytokines in paediatric and adult patients with Coats' disease. Methods: A total of 20 eyes of 20 patients with Coats' disease, 12 eyes of 12 paediatric patients, and eight eyes of eight adult patients, six patients (six eyes) with congenital cataract as the paediatric control group and 10 patients (10 eyes) with senile cataract as the adult control group were examined. Aqueous humour samples were assessed for interleukin-6, -8, -1β (IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, respectively), basic fibroblast growth factor, monocyte chemo-attractant protein 1, tumour necrosis factor alpha and VEGF by multiplex bead assay. Results: Significantly, higher concentrations of VEGF, IL-6 and IL-1β were found in the paediatric patients with Coats' disease (p = 0.001, p = 0.004 and p = 0.006). Concentration of VEGF in the paediatric patients with Stage 3B of Coats' disease was significantly higher than that of Stage 3A (p = 0.010). In the adult patients with Coats' disease, the aqueous levels of IL-6 and IL-1β were significantly higher than that of the controls (p = 0.012, and p = 0.005). The concentration of IL-6 was significantly linearly associated with the extent of exudative retinal detachment (p = 0.003, R = 0.892). Conclusions: Increasing severity of Coats' disease is significantly associated with intraocular VEGF concentration in the paediatric patients. And IL-6 may be involved with the inflammatory process in the adult patients with Coats' disease.