Abstract Background: COPD is a chronic disease of the lungs characterized by increased obstruction
to airflow that does not change markedly over periods of several months. Low-grade systemic
inflammation is considered a hallmark of COPD that potentially links COPD to increased rate of
systemic manifestations of the disease. Evaluation of systemic inflammation in COPD particularly
when the disease is severe and during exacerbation can be measured either as increased circulating
cytokines, chemokines and acute phase proteins, or as abnormalities in the circulating cells and
markers. One of these inflammatory mediators is IL-1B which demonstrated recent reports in significantly
high levels of IL-1b in serum of the COPD patients as compared to the healthy controls.