Cytokine panels in the treatment and diagnosis of rheumatic diseases: current practices and future promise

ABSTRACT Cytokine panels measure plasma levels of a set of soluble cell-effector biomarkers and are designed to provide a snapshot of the inflammatory milieu present in a patient at the time of sampling. During the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, patients demonstrated an inflammatory response with unequivocal marked cytokine storm. Thus, physicians and investigators ordered a superfluity of cytokine panels to gain mechanistic understanding of the pathology driven by the deadly viral infection. Although cases of COVID-19 have since waned, physicians continue to send cytokine panels with evolving evidence-based indications to evaluate other inflammatory syndromes. Cytokine panels hold diagnostic utility and promise, but more research is needed to determine the extent to which these panels can be used and the clinical contexts in which they can improve diagnostic and management capabilities.