ABSTRACT
This study included 38 scorpion envenomated children with ages ranged between 1.5-12 years as well as 13 apparently healthy age matched controls. All victims were admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit [PICU]. The victims and controls were subjected to complete clinical history and examination, assessment of the nutritional status by anthropometric measurements and full blood count. The evaluation of the serum levels of interleukin-1 beta [IL-1 beta], interleukin-6 [IL-6], nitric oxide [NO] and alpha 1 antitrypsin [alpha 1-AT] was performed once for the controls and twice for the victims; the first sample on admission and the second sample was obtained 24 hours later. It was concluded that the obtained data revealed that cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis of scorpion envenomation and correlated with the severity of envenomation