Cytokines and chemokines in cerebrospinal fluid in relation to diagnosis, clinical presentation and recovery in children being evaluated for Lyme neuroborreliosis.

•Many cytokines and chemokines are important immune mediators in CSF in patients with Lyme neuroborreliosis, but they have not been fully investigated for clinical or diagnostic purposes.•A discriminant analysis was created for distinguishing the independently most important cytokines/chemokines in CSF (CXCL1, GM-CSF, IL-7 and IL-10) in pediatric patients with Lyme neuroborreliosis as compared to controls without neuro-inflammation.•An IL-10/CXCL1 ratio was shown to have a promising diagnostic profile in laboratory diagnostics of Lyme neuroborreliosis, performing even better than chemokine CXCL13 in a ROC analysis.•No significant associations were found between levels of different immune mediator in CSF and clinical presentation or recovery in pediatric LNB patients.