Nieminen et al. (2014) found that IL-6 levels on admission have prognostic value for SAP, and when measured within 48 h of AP onset, an IL-6 level of ≥28.90 pg/ml was reported to be the best biomarker among those tested (IL-8, IL-10, and CRP) in a prospective cohort study on the prediction of SAP (Jain et al., 2018). Moreover, Jain et al. found that the additional consideration of IL-6 significantly improved the predictive value of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) for the prediction of SAP (Jain et al., 2018). Here, IL6 is linked to systemic inflammatory response syndrome.