Hello, my name is Patrick Pierce. I'm a fourth year medical student at Rowan Virtual School of Osteopathic Medicine. I'll be presenting my poster titled, An Observational Investigation of Three Inflammatory Serum Biomarker Levels Among Patients Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Congenital Heart Defects. For some context on my research, Autism Spectrum Disorder, also known as ASD, and congenital heart defects, also known as CHD, are conditions that both confer an immense increase in standard of care and an increased medical burden on those suffering from these disorders. While both disorders have many manifestations, one shared symptom that has been consistently cited is inflammation. The association between ASD and CHD is itself under immense investigation with no clear etiology cited. Currently, no specific biomarkers for ASD or CHD exist. Understanding the individual effects of the two conditions on serum marker levels of inflammation will help early diagnosis and better individualized treatments, especially in ASD patients. The objectives of this research were to examine the levels of three markers, tumor necrosis factor alpha, also known as TNF-alpha, interleukin-6, also known as IL-6, and C-reactive protein, also known as CRP, between patients diagnosed as having either ASD or CHD. The hypothesis tested was that there would be a significant difference between the two cohorts with CHD patients having a higher overall inflammatory marker level than ASD patients. For the methods of this analysis, systematic searches were carried out in PubMed, Medline, and Cochrane databases. Studies were excluded based on their title or abstract scanning, no data on the serum markers analyzed, non-human subjects, and non-usable data, meaning that the means were not given in the research articles. A total of 80 studies were finally used for analysis. Mean values from the studies for each of the three markers were compiled, and after basic analysis of distribution, statistical significance was tested through t-tests with Welch's correction. For the results of the 80 studies, we used the PRISMA guidelines containing the mean values of these three inflammatory markers within these populations. It was observed that while the marker levels are elevated in ASD or CHD patients compared to a phenotypically normal demographic, there is no significant difference between IL-6 and CRP levels in ASD or CHD patients as examined through the t-tests with the Welch's correction. However, there was a significantly higher level of TNF-alpha in CHD patients compared to ASD patients with a p-value of less than 0.05. It is unclear at this time why this difference exists, and more analyses will be needed to investigate that. The major limitations of this study were the wide variability of marker levels observed and lack of direct comparison in any study between the two patient populations. This preliminary study has highlighted some interesting observations regarding the levels of the three inflammatory markers in ASD versus CHD patients that suggest that the inflammatory process in the two conditions may be different and a fruitful line of investigation for possible early diagnosis or treatment plans. Further studies with carefully selected populations are necessary with possible investigations in organizations catering specifically to a neurodivergent population or to see if inflammatory marker levels can predict severity of ASD or CHD outcomes. Thank you for listening to my presentation, and I'll be present during the virtual poster session to answer any questions you may have.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

congenital heart defects

inflammatory biomarkers

TNF-alpha

personalized treatments