IL-18 levels increased significantly at 6 months (p = 0.04) and at 12 months (p = 0.01) versus baseline and correlated positively with creatinine (r = 0.893; p = 0.04) and urea (r = 0.823; p = 0.05).<h4>Conclusion</h4>In this pilot study with incident HD patients, plasma IL-18 increased over one year of treatment and was associated with uremia-related markers. Here, IL18 is linked to uremia.