Cytokine levels during hospitalisation
There was no difference in circulating cytokine levels at baseline between the two treatment arms. We observed two different patterns of cytokine changes after hospital admission. The levels of some cytokines initially fell, followed by a rise towards the end of the hospitalisation (eg, eotaxin, IL-9, IP-10, MIP1-β, PDGF, RANTES, TNF- α). The concentrations of other cytokines increased throughout the hospitalisation (eg, G-CSF, IFN-γ, IL-1b, IL-2, IL-6, IL-7, IL-13, MIP-1α) (There was a significant increase in levels of several (16 out of 23) cytokines in the tocilizumab group compared with placebo (p<0.05), but after Bonferroni correction, only IL-6, IL-8 and IL-1ra were significant (p<0.002). Further subanalyses were, therefore, restricted to these three cytokines (