IL6 and malaria: In addition to the association with adhesion molecules and IL-6, after controlling for age and parasitaemia OPG was also independently correlated with all other malaria severity markers evaluated, including creatinine (r = 0.36, p < 0.0001), lactate (r = 0.31, p < 0.0001), microvascular dysfunction (r = 0.23, 0.024) and endothelial dysfunction (r = 0.26, p = 0.011) (Table 4).