Figure 2.

Concentrations of acute-phase mediators. Mediators are divided into proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Dot plots with horizontal lines indicate the median of each group. The number of subjects evaluated is listed in parentheses. Double arrowhead lines indicate comparisons between groups. Only statistically significant differences are indicated as follows: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001; **** p < 0.0001. Abbreviations: ARDS = acute respiratory distress syndrome; IL = interleukin; MV = mechanical ventilation; n = number of patients; NIC = non-infected comparators; TNFα = tumor necrosis factor alpha.