Table 2.
Whole blood ex-vivo cytokine results at baseline for tuberculous meningitis (TBM) versus pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and healthy controls (HC).
| Patient group (n) | Comparison (p) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TBM | PTB | HC | TBM vs PTB | TBM vs HC | |
| 50 | 25 | 26 | |||
| IFN-γ (pg/mL) | |||||
| BCG | 18 (10–22) | 21 (13–26) | 16 (11–29) | 0.317 | 0.742 |
| M. tuberculosis | 16 (12–24) | 16 (12–31) | 14 (8–24) | 0.482 | 0.517 |
| S. pneumoniae | 23 (16–35) | 33 (16–47) | 24 (15–35) | 0.070 | 0.622 |
| E. coli | 15 (10–19) | 14 (12–18) | 16 (10–26) | 0.843 | 0.381 |
| C. albicans | 12 (9–21) | 24 (17–29) | 20 (15–32) | 0.004 | 0.008 |
| TNF-α (pg/mL) | |||||
| BCG | 334 (142–847) | 930 (538–1530) | 252 (128–356) | 0.004 | 0.119 |
| M. tuberculosis | 359 (97–803) | 466 (215–1036) | 83 (50–157) | 0.214 | 0.001 |
| S. pneumoniae | 591 (136–1029) | 1387 (1125–1668) | 369 (202–647) | <0.001 | 0.405 |
| E. coli | 365 (104–1242) | 915 (333–1569) | 391 (206–773) | 0.033 | 0.889 |
| C. albicans | 122 (52–426) | 139 (70–259) | 153 (100–217) | 0.872 | 0.901 |
| IL-1β (pg/mL) | |||||
| BCG | 167 (79–393) | 363 (204–761) | 183 (106–382) | 0.012 | 0.653 |
| M. tuberculosis | 200 (53–449) | 335 (186–619) | 178 (129–260) | 0.055 | 0.921 |
| S. pneumoniae | 474 (134–968) | 1477 (1055–1749) | 721 (366–935) | <0.001 | 0.124 |
| E. coli | 288 (42–473) | 760 (486–1037) | 667 (195–944) | <0.001 | 0.005 |
| C. albicans | 95 (37–193) | 106 (53–131) | 104 (66–161) | 0.713 | 0.499 |
| IL-6 (pg/mL) | |||||
| BCG | 2838 (1056–5108) | 6052 (4477–9882) | 2888 (1731–4750) | 0.001 | 0.878 |
| M. tuberculosis | 2281 (700–6104) | 4000 (2986–7269) | 1574 (850–2728) | 0.027 | 0.191 |
| S. pneumoniae | 1635 (573–3114) | 2183 (1667–3047) | 1530 (971–2160) | 0.071 | 0.965 |
| E. coli | 2068 (607–3284) | 3331 (2379–5149) | 2179 (1363–3024) | 0.009 | 0.901 |
| C. albicans | 1151 (411–2436) | 1192 (486–1630) | 694 (318–1101) | 0.648 | 0.107 |
| IL-10 (pg/mL) | |||||
| BCG | 39 (12–81) | 52 (44–84) | 35 (24–53) | 0.132 | 0.801 |
| M. tuberculosis | 21 (10–59) | 36 (17–44) | 14 (6–25) | 0.386 | 0.077 |
| S. pneumoniae | 33 (15–54) | 38 (21–55) | 24 (13–40) | 0.458 | 0.187 |
| E. coli | 38 (5–67) | 51 (32–89) | 61 (28–73) | 0.106 | 0.258 |
| C. albicans | 6 (5–32) | 5 (5–13) | 6 (5–9) | 0.457 | 0.383 |
| IL-1RA (pg/mL) | |||||
| BCG | 3810 (2020–6132) | 4833 (3210–6209) | 1597 (1290–2269) | 0.160 | <0.001 |
| M. tuberculosis | 3366 (1924–6719) | 4651 (2677–5980) | 1645 (1325–2067) | 0.351 | <0.001 |
| S. pneumoniae | 3948 (1826–5861) | 6083 (4499–10546) | 1728 (956–2270) | 0.002 | <0.001 |
| E. coli | 3902 (1647–6512) | 6901 (3789–8459) | 2830 (2329–3739) | 0.006 | 0.143 |
| C. albicans | 1633 (1132–3071) | 2334 (1751–3361) | 908 (604–1578) | 0.146 | 0.002 |
Mann-Whitney U p-values for are shown. Data were missing for one pulmonary tuberculosis patient and one healthy control. Data are 100% complete for BCG, M. tuberculosis and S. pneumoniae, 87% for E. coli and 76% for C. albicans.