الفهرس 
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Diagnostic instruments for autismOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are neurodevelopmental diseases characterized by restricted interests, repetitive behaviors, and deficient language and social skills. While there are no concrete biological markers for the disorder, immune anomalies are frequently described among individuals with ASD and their family members.
Cytokines are secreted proteins that control the intensity, duration, and character of an immune response. Cytokines also interact with neural systems and are involved in neural development and maintenance.
This study objected to detect plasma level of transforming growth factor beta 2 (TGF-β2), heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and interferon (IFN) γ in children with ASD and to find out correlation between their plasma levels and severity of ASD.
This study was carried on two groups; group I include 40 patients newly with AD and group II include 40 normal children matches for age and sex, recruited from the private Child Outpatients Clinics at Sharqia Governorate in the period from March, 2016 to Jan, 2018.
Consent was taken from parents for their siblings to be enrolled in the study.
All children in this study were subjected to:
Full history taking especially developmental history and prenatal complications.
Physical examination and especially neurological examination.
Cognitive age using Stanford Bine intelligence scale to exclude other mental or neurobehavioral disorders.
Psychometric study using: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition text revised (DSM-IV) (TR) and Child Autistic Rating Scale (CARS).
Laboratory detection of plasma level of HSP70, TGF-β2 and INF-γ by an ELISA kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Results:
(a) sex distribution among the patient group with male/female ratio 4.7:1.:1;
(b) mean value of maternal age was significantly higher among patients than controls;
(c)The mean maternal age at the time of conception, a history of prenatal complication, positive family history and history of epileptic attacks were significantly higher in children with autism than in controls;
(d) in the present study (30%) had mild degree of autism with CARS (21–27), 60% with moderate degree of autism (28–33) and 10% with severe autism (>34).
(e) There was a negative correlation between the level of TGFβ2 and CARS which is a diagnostic tool for autism and reflects the severity of autism in the current study.
(f) There was a positive correlation between the level of HSP70, IFN-γ and CARS which is a diagnostic tool for autism and reflects the severity of autism in the current study.
The present study confirms the role of neuroinflammation mechanisms in the etiology of autism together with the possibility of the use of HSP70, TGF-β2, and INF-γ as predictive biomarkers.