Serum cytokines serve as predictors of thermal burn injuries

Dear Editor, We read the publication on “Could serum cytokines serve as predictors in outcome of thermal burn injuries” with a great interest.[1] Babu et al. concluded that “cytokines could serve as predictors for the outcome of thermal burn injuries.”[1] The determination of cytokines might be useful, but there are some concerns. First, the quality control of the laboratory analysis according to clinical pathology principle is necessary. Second, cytokine is not a good biomarker for the cases of burn in the elderly. In elderly patients with burn, the trend of low cytokine level is observed.[2] The other basic biomarkers that might be useful as predictors are creatinine and blood urea nitrogen.[2]