IL18 and meningeal tuberculosis: Among these 25 elevated cytokines, 11 cytokines, including FGF.basic, G-CSF, IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-8, IL-12(p40), IL-18, MCP-3, MIG, MIP-1α, and TNF-α, also exhibited similar trends in the TBM group when compared to the CM group (all P < 0.05) (Fig. 1 and 2; Table 4).