Fig. 1

Boxplot diagrams of all CSF cytokine concentrations. For better illustration, patients are divided into a patient group with NIND, CIS/RRMS, SPMS, Lues, and LNB (a–g) and into a patient group with NIND and bacterial and viral meningitis (h–m). Diagrams are further grouped according to the ranges of cytokine concentrations with 0–20 pg/mL (a), 0–50 pg/mL (b), 0–100 pg/mL (c), 0–200 pg/mL (d), 0–1000 (e), 0–2000 pg/mL (f), 0–10,000 pg/mL (g), 0–100 pg/mL (h), 0–200 pg/mL (i), 0–500 pg/mL (j), 0–1000 pg/mL (k), 0–5000 pg/mL (l), and 0–10,000 pg/mL (m). Significant differences in cytokine concentrations between neuro-inflammatory diseases and patients with NIND are marked with asterisks (*) (for detailed significance levels, please refer to Table 2). NIND, non-inflammatory neurological diseases; CIS, clinically isolated syndrome; RRMS, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; SPMS, secondary progressive multiple sclerosis; LNB, Lyme neuro-borreliosis