Our result found that IL-6 −572C/G polymorphism was positively correlated with cerebral infarction risk under the allelic model (G versus C: OR=1.31, 95% CI=1.03–1.66, P=0.03), heterogeneity model (CG versus CC: OR =1.38, 95% CI=1.04–1.83, P=0.03) and dominant model (GG + CG versus CC: OR=1.40, 95% CI=1.05–1.88, P=0.02) in the random-effect model as shown in Figure 4. Here, IL6 is linked to cerebral infarction.