Fig. 2

Inflammatory clustering based on peripheral cytokine expression levels. A recursive two step cluster analysis with mRNA expression levels (ΔΔCt) of the cytokines IL-18, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8 (in order of contribution) yielded 3 subgroups. (a). Increased differences in levels of cytokine expression as compared to low cytokine controls were found for the elevated cytokine group (encompassing groups with high and very high cytokine expression) for all cytokines, regardless of diagnosis (b). Bars represent the mean ± standard error (^& p < 0.10, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001)