Fig. 1

CSF analysis in COVID-19 patients with acute neurological disturbances. CSF samples from COVID-19 patients with isolated refractory headache (H) (n = 14), encephalopathy (E) (n = 24), and inflammatory neurological diseases (IND) (n = 14), and from a control group of individuals with non-inflammatory, non-infectious neurological diseases (NI) (n = 9) were assessed by Luminex (MILLIPLEX MAP Human Cytokine/Chemokine/Growth Factor Panel A, Merck Millipore), Cytometry bead array (LEGENDplex Human Neuroinflammation Panel 1, Biolegend), and ELISA. Concentration values in pg/mL were log₁₀-transformed and are presented as median and interquartile range (IQR). Comparative analysis was performed with the Kruskal–Wallis test and posthoc analysis using Dunn’s test with Benjamini–Hochberg method for adjusting p-values in multiple comparisons. Results of proinflammatory factors (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-15, IL-25, IL-18, IFN-α2, and neopterin), regulatory cytokines (IL-4 and IL-5), chemokines (MIP-1α/CCL3, MCP-3/CCL7, eotaxin/CCL11, IL-8/CXCL8, MIG/CXCL9, and fractalkine/CX3CL1), growth factors (IL-2, IL-3, IL-7, FLT3L, EGF, GM-CSF, β-NGF, TGF-α, and G-CSF), and markers of cellular stress response (HMGB1 and sTREM-2) that presented significant changes (Kruskal–Wallis p < 0.05) are shown. Summary data for all factors evaluated are presented in additional graphs and tables [see Additional file 1 and Additional file 2]. *, adj. p < 0.05; **, adj. p < 0.01.