Abstract:Objective To analyze changes and significance of T lymphocyte subsets, NK cells and cytokine levels in circulating blood of children with hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD). Methods Retrospective analysis was used to analyze the changes and significance of cellular immune function and related cytokine levels before and after treatment in 68 children with hand-foot-mouth disease admitted to the hospital from January 2016 to June 2018, and to explore the relationship between the changes and the severity of the disease. Results Among the 68 children with HFMD as observation group and 25 healthy children as control group, single virus infection was the most common. The Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection appeared the highest (47.06%), followed by EV71+CA16 mixed infection (14.71%). The levels of CD4+T, CD8+T and NK cells in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The leukin-10 (IL-10), interleukin-17 (IL-17) and Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) levels in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Before treatment, CD4+T and CD8+T levels in the severe HFMD group were lower than those in the normal HFMD group (P < 0 .05), and NK cell levels were higher than those in the normal HFMD group (P < 0.05). IL-10, IL-17 and TNF-α were all higher in the heavy HFMD group than in the normal HFMD group (P < 0.05). The levels of CD4+T, CD8+T, and NK cells in the observation group were all higher after 7 days of treatment than before (P < 0.05), and the levels of IL-10, IL-17, and TNF-α were lower after treatment than before (P < 0.05). Conclusions The pathogenesis of children with HFMD is related to the abnormality of cellular immune function and the imbalance of cytokines, which plays a guiding role in the occurrence, development, evaluation and outcome of the disease.