Sustained pain relief following radon spa therapy in patients suffering from chronic painful diseases has been well described. But still, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. We conducted the prospective and explorative RAD-ON01 study which included 103 patients who suffered from chronic painful musculoskeletal disorders of the spine and/or joints and present here the data of the examination of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the serum of the patients before and at weeks 6, 12 and 30 after therapy. While TNFα, IL-1β, IFNγ, IL-1Ra and IL-10 were not altered, TGFβ was temporarily significantly (p = 0.013) elevated 6 weeks after therapy. Importantly, this elevation positively correlated with lowered pain sensitivity (r = 0.41). Further, the amount of IL-18 in the serum positively correlated with lowered pain sensitivity. Therefore, IL-18 can be considered as predictive marker for pain sensitivity of radon spa patients. We conclude that alterations in TGFβ and general IL-18 levels in serum have prognostic and predictive value in situations of lowered pain by exposure of patients to very low-doses of radiation as it is the case in radon spa.
Keywords: Chronic painful musculoskeletal disease; IL-18; Joints; Radon spa; Spine; TGFβ.