Table 1.

Characteristics of reviewed articles on cytokine levels in AD and MCI. The table lists investigated disease type, diagnostic criteria/tests, sample types and methods of the reviewed 118 articles (Supplementary 1). Note that some articles investigated more than one disease or body fluid or used more than a single method. Roughly 1/3 of articles investigated MCI or other dementia types additionally to AD. Most studies reported use of at least one class of diagnostic criteria and one type of cognitive testing. Plasma, serum and CSF were used in equal terms, and the most frequent method was singleplex ELISA, followed especially in the last decade by multiplex assays and cytokine arrays. The percentages reflect the respective proportion assessing the respective features

Disease type	96 %	Alzheimer’s disease
	38 %	Mild cognitive impairment
	27 %	Other dementia or neurological disease
Diagnostic criteria / tests	76 %	NINCDS-ADRDA
	73 %	MMSE
	37 %	DSM-IV
	16 %	DSM-IIIR
	12 %	CDR
	33 %	Other
Sample type	38 %	Plasma
	40 %	Serum
	37 %	CSF
Methods	77 %	ELISA (singleplex)
	8 %	Multiplex assay
	4 %	Cytokine array
	3 %	Western blot
	4 %	Cell-based bioassays
	6 %	Immunodiffusion (solemnly for quantification of ACT)
	4 %	Other methods (radioimmunoassay, immunoephelometry, qRT-PCR)