Finally, patients experiencing a septic shock presented higher cytokine concentrations than control patients, as measured at day 1 (Il-1b = 44.4 pg/ml (20.6–86) versus 16.6 pg/ml (9.9–29), p = 0.016; Il-6 = 3363 pg/ml (1069–13,968) versus 317 pg/ml (118–604), p < 0.001; Il-8 = 357 pg/ml (187–753) versus 89 pg/ml (62–121), p < 0.001) (Additional File 1: Fig. S1). The gene discussed is CXCL8; the disease is septic shock.