TNF and pneumonia: In the whole group of patients, a GC index above 13.7% was associated with poor outcome both the univariate analysis (OR 3.53, 95% CI 2.02–6.16, P < 0.01) and the multivariate analysis adjusted for age, NIHSS score, pneumonia, WBC count, plasma IL-6, and TNFα release (OR 2.16, 95% CI 1.15–4.05, P = 0.02).